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Government Electronic Frontier Foundation Privacy Your Rights Online

EFF Suggests Halloween Costume To Protest Facial Recognition Databases (eff.org) 65

An anonymous reader writes: EFF's list of costume ideas for digital rights activists include a Stingray costume, dressing up like a Privacy Badger (or a patent troll), and using facepaint to simulate the eerie digitization algorithms that are currently capturing images of your face for government databases. "Just this week we learned that facial recognition is far more prevalent among local and federal law enforcement than we thought, with at least 26 states using this biometric technology... To draw attention to this emerging threat to privacy, you can use your face painting skills to recreate the digitization algorithms on your own mug based on public records we and others have obtained from law enforcement agencies."
Sixteen states already grant the FBI access to their DMV databases, reports EFF, noting that it's "almost completely unregulated," with one study reporting that 50% of American faces are already in a government database.
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EFF Suggests Halloween Costume To Protest Facial Recognition Databases

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  • by CajunArson ( 465943 ) on Monday October 31, 2016 @06:44AM (#53183031) Journal

    Because the real spirit of Halloween is protesting things.

    • by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 31, 2016 @06:51AM (#53183061)

      Actually, it is. It's a remnant of the poor drunkenly demanding stuff from the rich during the end of the year harvest festival.

      • Halloween has evolved from a Pagan celebration into the second greatest kid's holiday of the year. "Seriously, they have to give you candy if you ask!"

        It was never favored by the early American Puritans, and only gained popularity with the mass Irish and Scottish immigration in the 1800s. Churches today still frown upon it, and religious-sponsored alternatives to Trick or Treat are offered nearly every place I've lived.

        Evidently, the one belief in the supernatural is enough for any congregation.

        • by Anonymous Coward

          The Puritans didn't favor anything remotely connected to fun. They even banned Christmas because fuck celebrating and having a meal with friends and family you should be at work.

    • by gatkinso ( 15975 )

      Don't forget dressing in a skimpy outfit.

      • 1. take a photo of your own face.
        2. run it through google deep dream
        3. inkjet print the result in makeup directly on your face
        4. spend Halloween as a slutty beholder.
      • That's why Jesus died for a second time on the cross on Halloween. To give girls the right to wear skimpy "sexy ______" costumes.

        • That's why Jesus died for a second time on the cross on Halloween. To give girls the right to wear skimpy "sexy ______" costumes.

          "Wow, I didn't think the costume designers could actually do it, but I have to admit, that is indeed a really sexy blank."

        • That's why Jesus died for a second time on the cross on Halloween. To give girls the right to wear skimpy "sexy ______" costumes.

          And frog.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I dunno, reminding people of how far our privacy has been invaded should prove fairly scary.

    • Because the real spirit of Halloween is protesting things.

      Halloween has always been a way of protesting the Church, at least as long as it's been called "Halloween".

      • At least in Western Christianity, Halloween is typically celebrated as All Saints' Day, but like most other Christian festivals it has roots farther back into Pagan festivals that existed long before Christianity did. I think that the idea of it being a way of protesting churches was more of a byproduct of businesses trying to find a way to capitalize on the holiday than anything on the part of people looking to protest for its own sake. Either that or it has that connotation because Europe kicked out most
      • I think about all the time and money spent recognizing a person's face. Yet the same algorithm cannot recognize a pencil from a spoon; I could do something useful with that.
    • There are various guides to creating stingray costumes out of towels or bedsheets, and all you'd need to do is add a little antenna or a cell phone on a makeshift fishing pole. If you're in a pinch, though, just grab a cardboard box, roll it around on the ground, and you've a "dirtbox," another form of cell-site simulator manufactured by the Boeing subsidiary Digital Receiver Technology.

      "Hey, Bob, thanks for showing up. You're holding a box, what did you bring?"

      "I didn't bring anything, this is my costume. This is not just "a box", as you can clearly see it has dirt on the outside from rolling it around on the ground. It is not "a box", it is "a dirtbox". As we all know, "dirtboxes" are devices that emit a strong, and nefarious, cell tower signal, which will cause some nearby cell phones to attempt to connect if the signal is stronger than the one they are receiving from the nearest le

    • One suggestion - go wearing an RMS mask, and spray yourself w/ BO so that you'll have a mile radius stench around you
  • Perhaps if we were to draw dick pics on our faces, it might confuse these systems into identifying us as an altogether different species...

  • ... the many-faced god. Come to think of it, both organizations operate in eerily similar ways...

  • by GameboyRMH ( 1153867 ) <gameboyrmh@@@gmail...com> on Monday October 31, 2016 @08:06AM (#53183343) Journal

    If you're going to the Halloween meeting of your local Linux user group...otherwise, not so much.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    But 'murica is "land of the free, home of the brave." Until one attack happens and then it becomes "home of the sissy cucks afraid of their shadows."

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Run face recognition on them and project their Facebook profile, or their browser history if you feel ambitious.

  • "...with one study reporting that 50% of American faces are already in a government database"

    I'd be surprised if it was only 50%. Just between the DMV and Facebook (which the NSA admits they mine for data) I think it'd be higher than that.

    There are about 214 million licensed drivers in the U.S. according to Statista (https://www.statista.com/statistics/191653/number-of-licensed-drivers-in-the-us-since-1988/ [statista.com]). That's about 67% of the 319 million people in the US as of 2014.

    If the NSA admits to mining Faceboo

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