Facial Recognition Deployed on Children at Hundreds of US Summer Camps (tulsaworld.com) 60
The Washington Post describes a parent whose phone "rings 10 times a day with notifications from the summer camp's facial-recognition service, which alerts him whenever one of his girls is photographed enjoying their newfound independence."
Cory Doctorow reports: You can also call your kid if you think they look unhappy or if you are unsatisfied with them in any way and nag them. So kids mob photographers with big, fake smiles and beg to be photographed so their parents won't harass them.
The companies have "privacy policies" that grossly overreach, giving them perpetual licenses to distribute all the photos they take forever, for any purpose. They claim to have super-secure data-centers, but won't describe what makes them so sure their data centers are more secure than, say, the NSA's, Equifax, or any of the other "super secure" data centers that have been breached and dumped in recent memory.
And while parents enjoy all this looking at their kids while they're away in theory, they also report a kind of free-floating anxiety because they know just enough about their kids' lives at camp to worry, but not enough to assuage their worries.
One overseer of two camps tells the Post that more concerned parents call her in two hours than used to call in an entire month. One company adds that their service is now being used by over 160,000 parents -- and for children as young as six.
At least one camp takes over 1,000 photos each day -- scanning each one with facial recognition technology -- and the Post reports that facial-recognition technology has now already been deployed at "hundreds" of summer camps all across the United States.
Cory Doctorow reports: You can also call your kid if you think they look unhappy or if you are unsatisfied with them in any way and nag them. So kids mob photographers with big, fake smiles and beg to be photographed so their parents won't harass them.
The companies have "privacy policies" that grossly overreach, giving them perpetual licenses to distribute all the photos they take forever, for any purpose. They claim to have super-secure data-centers, but won't describe what makes them so sure their data centers are more secure than, say, the NSA's, Equifax, or any of the other "super secure" data centers that have been breached and dumped in recent memory.
And while parents enjoy all this looking at their kids while they're away in theory, they also report a kind of free-floating anxiety because they know just enough about their kids' lives at camp to worry, but not enough to assuage their worries.
One overseer of two camps tells the Post that more concerned parents call her in two hours than used to call in an entire month. One company adds that their service is now being used by over 160,000 parents -- and for children as young as six.
At least one camp takes over 1,000 photos each day -- scanning each one with facial recognition technology -- and the Post reports that facial-recognition technology has now already been deployed at "hundreds" of summer camps all across the United States.
Good! (Score:5, Funny)
I have kids. Those little fuckers are always up to something.
Re:Good! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Good! (Score:5, Interesting)
I tried this technology out with my daughter last week using Waldo. She said that she wasn't aware of the photographer. She had no idea any pictures came to us. We got a few pics a day showing her activity throughout the week. It was an interesting view into her world.
We didn't call the camp and bug our kid. We didn't harass the camp counselors to make sure our kid was treated better. We let our daughter do her camp thing and showed her the pictures after we brought her home. We try to avoid that sort of helicopter parenting. From my experience, most parents also avoid helicopter parenting.
Yeah, the few helicopter parents can abuse this system. But to be fair, helicopter parents can abuse everything. They're going to be horrendous and bug the camp and the kids no matter what. As one of the normal parents, I would still like the opportunity to occasionally see my own kid having fun even if that triggers some helicopter parent who is going to get triggered regardless.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Merely showing interest in your child's life isn't helicopter parenting.
Re: (Score:2)
if little Johnny sits on the edge of the group or doesn't smile. Then, repeatedly demanding photos that show Johnny having a good time.
Do you have any idea how much a real actual sleep-there-summer-camp costs these days? I sure as hell do.
I am the opposite of a helicopter parent, but If the overpriced camp is dumb enough to send me a picture of my kid not having $5-8k worth of fun then you bet your ass I'm gonna call find out just wtf.
This is not helicopter parenting, it's a natural response to the crazy high prices, and people trying to get what they paid for. You don't want parents calling? Maybe not have a automated system sending them
Re: (Score:2)
I don't believe there were any cameras at camps I went to. Maybe one or two group photos, but that was it.
Hell, glad there wasn't social media and a fucking phone everywhere all the time when I grew up.
You got to be a kid then, and when you got into normal mischief, you didn't end up with a criminal records and you got to learn from your mistakes.
Re:Good! (Score:5, Insightful)
Congratulations! Now yer kid will know (a) you are a sneak, (b) she cannot trust you, and (c) if she wanted to get away with something, she just needs to avoid the cameras...her friends will help her with that.
Re: (Score:1)
Your complaint sounds like one from a sullen teenager who hates their parents. The girl is 11 years old. She's not yet in the distrustful teenage years. She thought the pics were interesting. She liked that she had some pictures with her fri
Re:Good! (Score:4, Interesting)
So it's an endless stream of photos of prepubsecent children being pushed out to anyone who claims to be a parent.
I can see a quick way to get this crap shut down in an instant...
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Hopefully he's a better parent than you're capable of understanding sarcasm.
Re: Good! (Score:2)
So you're saying it's a two-edged sword? Phenomenal insight!!
Dysfunctional parenting (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course there are camps that are less than fully worthy of the parents' trust, and there are individual children for whom a particular camp might not be a great fit, but part of the point of summer camp is allow children some development away from their parents, giving both children and parents a healthy, temporary separation from each other. This is a dysfunctional use of technology, tethering children to their parents to a degree that obstructs normal development and manufactures pointless anxieties. If parents cannot allow their children the minimal independence that exists in an environment of near-constant adult supervision, then there is something very wrong with their parenting skills.
Re: (Score:2)
A previous kindergarten our child attended had a "FB like" app were they could post photos of the day. One could order a picture book (added money for the school). My gosh I had to press snooze on the alerts. Nice pictures. Too much info.
Ignorance is bliss. The summer camp carts my son all over the area going Rock climbing, caving, kayaking. I only hope that the driver is over 18.
I rank a camp by whether my child falls asleep on the car-ride home !
Our son acts out occasionally (an overly ~free~ spir
Does it get much more creepy than this? (Score:5, Insightful)
How did it all go so wrong? Fake independence is no independence and the damage will be severe when the victims find out.
Re: (Score:1)
I served 8 years in the US military. Had I known this was the direction the direction the US would go, I would have never joined up.
Re: (Score:3)
I know we're all three off topic and going down the /. drain, but goddamit, shit's important.
TFA is about wonderful American facial recognition and how we can "think of the children."
American children.
As part of the technology community, I feel compelled to speak out about issues of ethics.
And, it's not, "detention centers."
It's "concentration camps."
Why didn't those fuckers take photos of children with their parents?
Facial recognition will be a great tool to unite children with parents as long as it's Amer
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
I believe that the whole "wall" is part of a Trump scheme to funnel billions into his friend's pockets for the next 10-20 years. I wouldn't be surprised if a major reason he is so against releasing his taxes is it would show connections to the various bids for the wall.
I thought the same exact thing from the beginning. But especially so when they suddenly starting demanding that it be a steel wall. Interesting how there are all these tariffs placed on Chinese steel and now all the sudden we will need to purchase massive amounts of steel.
Why does everyone keep ignoring the fact that almost all of the drugs are smuggled in through legal ports of entry? Why does everyone keep ignoring the fact that most immigrants also come through legal points of entry?
We need to build an
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
A parent who brings their child with them while they commit a crime is an unfit parent and their children should be taken away.
Re:Does it get much more creepy than this? (Score:4, Informative)
What crime? According to treaties signed by the U.S., they have a right to present themselves at the border and request asylum. Since they are acting within their rights, no crime is being committed by them.
They are not in jail awaiting trial for crimes, they are (in theory) in a waiting area awaiting a hearing on their immigration status. Given that, no claims about citizen prisoners also being separated from their children actually apply.
Re: Does it get much more creepy than this? (Score:3)
Seeking asylum isn't a crime
Re: (Score:2)
A slashdoter who writes invalid arguments is an unfit writer and their keyboard should be taken away.
Your argument implies that a parent that drives over the speed limit should have their children taken away...
Re: (Score:1)
Randy Bush, is that you?
Re: (Score:3)
If you show up on the border seeking asylum you are not breaking the law. People showing up at the border seeking asylum are being separated from their children. Your argument is completely and utterly destroyed.
Anything else?
Please educate yourselves people. And do humanity a favor , don't watch fox news.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Does it get much more creepy than this? (Score:5, Informative)
Everyone that breaks the law gets separated from their children, citizens included.
Except the vast majority of the people being separated from their children at the border haven't committed a crime. They're applying for asylum which is perfectly legal under US law.
Criminals go to jail, innocents do not.
That's false. The very best you can say is that more criminals go to jail than innocents. I'm not saying that we shouldn't prosecute crimes because some innocents will be erroneously convicted. Fighting crime is important. But don't ever forget that not everyone who is convicted is guilty -- and, obviously, not everyone with a clean record is innocent.
Re: (Score:1)
Crossing the border illegally is a fucking crime idiot
Re: (Score:2)
ON TOP OF THE FACT that most of these people are NOT breaking the law -- someone isn't keeping track of where the children are going to allow them to reunite. And, people who try and call in to investigate if a relative is there can often get investigated by ICE -- scaring off people with questionable legal status.
It seems that just making a moral argument about how kids should be with their families, regardless of what country they happened to be lucky enough to be born in is too much and we have to also b
Re:Does it get much more creepy than this? (Score:5, Insightful)
The situation is terrible in multiple ways and I do hate that it is happening, but the real moral problem are folks like you. You do not support the US going and ending the conflicts these people are running from
In many cases the US is already involved in these conflicts, and not in a positive way. But surely more US involvement will help!
Re: (Score:2)
You do not support the US going and ending the conflicts these people are running from but you think that the ones able to make it to the border should get a free pass in as well.
How do you know what this person supports or doesn't? Are you saying his "type of person" doesn't support because you assume that?
My "assumption" here is that you mean "massive military intervention" to end conflicts -- I'm just assuming that based on how you talk about other issues as if you are Colonel Jessup and nobody else can handle the cold, hard bitter truth.
Stick to poorly arguing one topic at a time -- that's my advice. It's really a complex issue but a lot of those people are fleeing countries we
Re: (Score:1)
"Criminals go to jail, innocents do not. "
Clearly you have never met a black American.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: Does it get much more creepy than this? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
But still, people wish to become citizens of this nation. And we take in a much larger percentage of immigrants than most other nations. So stay in your shit hole. And quit telling this nation what to do and what not to do. Nobody gives a fuck what you think.
I care what you think CaptainDork
Re: (Score:2)
Always been this way (Score:3)
People think it's a bad idea when someone else is doing it to them. But they think it's a great idea when they're the ones doing it to someone else. Most people's thinking process when it comes to appraising if something is a good or bad idea seems to be:
x = n*(how something affects me) - (how it affects other people), where n > 1.
If x > 0, then they think it's a good idea. If x 0 then they think it's bad.
To properly assess things like privacy policies, we need to teach everyone that their weighti
Re: (Score:2)
I suppose it has been like this for a while since we now have to deal with all those numskulls who can't live in the real world without being offended by everything.
These aren't instruction manuals (Score:2)
Summer camphas changed... for the worse (Score:5, Interesting)
Half a century ago when I went to two camps every summer (church sponsored and Boy Scouts) there was only minimal contact allowed between campers and parents. We were encouraged to write to our parents, but phone calls were emergency-only. At Scout camp there was no on-site phone, but there was a ham radio setup that could be used in an emergency and those few who were lucky enough to have hams as parents could actually talk to them. (My father was a ham.) Church camp had a phone, but it was only for camp business or emergencies.
Somehow everyone survived and over all I think both the kids and our parents really enjoyed it that way. (I know my folks really enjoyed the privacy.)
Today I doubt many parent would even think of having the kids where they could not keep near continual watch on them and, while I do understand this, I really don't think it is a good thing. At least in my case all of the kids were 10 or over (church) or teens (Scouts) and it seems to me that it was time for us to have some separation from parents and family.
Re:Summer camphas changed... for the worse (Score:5, Interesting)
My youngest daughter did "sleepover" camp for the first time this summer. It was with the girl scouts. Mom is a scout leader but did not attend. There was no communication at all while she was away. She had a lot of fun, and got homesick. And she told us all about it when we went to pick her up.
The temptation to be overprotective is strong. Mostly because as adults we have learned what other adults are capable of. And because we have a parental instinct to be protective.
When i was a kid I left the house in the morning, usually with my bike and i went on adventures, often times with friends. Often involving woods, or streams, or abandoned building, or finding some teenagers secret stash of porno mags. All the shit parents probably wouldn't want you to do. And it was glorious. I'd return home for meals.
I'll admit, I like to know where my kids are whenever possible.
Privacy policy is irrelevant here (Score:2)
”The companies have "privacy policies" that grossly overreach, giving them perpetual licenses to distribute all the photos they take forever, for any purpose.”
In the US, anyway, it’s long-settled law that parents cannot sign away their kids’ rights. So whatever releases these parents may have signed, giving these companies license to their children’s images, likely has no real legal standing.
Idiots killing idiocy. (Score:4, Informative)
One overseer of two camps tells the Post that more concerned parents call her in two hours than used to call in an entire month
Good. I hope this forces them to stop using this idiotic [dis]service on children.
Re: (Score:2)
"One of the drones said the calls are taking up a massive amount of time"
"Leave it with my secretary, I have a Subscriber Growth presentation after lunch and you're going to ruin my shrimp cocktail"
Groucho glasses (Score:2)
Groucho glasses . . . for all kids . . .
Groucho glasses [wikipedia.org]
Slashdot is on the case (Score:2)
It's a good thing Slashdot is here. Parents might have been able to decide for themselves whether they want automated pictures of their kids at camp. But thankfully there is no longer a need for parents to decide without valuable input from Internet cranks.
Second guessing parents because of conspiracy fears related to facial recognition technology is a precious gift you can finally give.
Re: (Score:2)
Glad to be of service.
Thankfully we now also of the gift of an internet crank offering his opinion about what other internet cranks offer their opinion on.
Feel better?
Stupid people shouldn't breed (Score:1)
Happy low trust society (Score:1)
Now connect it to Facebook so your friends can monitor your kids too. Especially uncle Horst from Austria.
Re: (Score:1)
brave new world (Score:1)
Imagine future "retreat" areas that people will travel to in order to avoid the panopticon.
No hope (Score:2)
1984 exists in China and Russia. In the west, it will be private.
Interesting job title. (Score:2)
Why does this make me think of inbred redneck buffoons with a whip on their belt and a a pointy white hat for Sunday best. Yeee-haw!