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Afghans Scramble To Delete Digital History, Evade Biometrics (reuters.com) 203

Thousands of Afghans struggling to ensure the physical safety of their families after the Taliban took control of the country have an additional worry: that biometric databases and their own digital history can be used to track and target them. From a report: U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned of "chilling" curbs on human rights and violations against women and girls, and Amnesty International on Monday said thousands of Afghans - including academics, journalists and activists - were "at serious risk of Taliban reprisals." After years of a push to digitise databases in the country, and introduce digital identity cards and biometrics for voting, activists warn these technologies can be used to target and attack vulnerable groups. "We understand that the Taliban is now likely to have access to various biometric databases and equipment in Afghanistan," the Human Rights First group wrote on Twitter on Monday.

"This technology is likely to include access to a database with fingerprints and iris scans, and include facial recognition technology," the group added. The U.S.-based advocacy group quickly published a Farsi-language version of its guide on how to delete digital history - that it had produced last year for activists in Hong Kong - and also put together a manual on how to evade biometrics. Tips to bypass facial recognition include looking down, wearing things to obscure facial features, or applying many layers of makeup, the guide said, although fingerprint and iris scans were difficult to bypass.

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Afghans Scramble To Delete Digital History, Evade Biometrics

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  • by Anonymous Coward
    If the Taliban define women and girls as property, then they they have no human rights to violate.
  • by RightwingNutjob ( 1302813 ) on Wednesday August 18, 2021 @10:00AM (#61704663)

    I'd say the risk of getting tracked down based on files at work is low relative to the risk of getting beaten or shot for showing your hair or having an insufficiently scruffy beard on your face at this point.

    Perspective is important.

    I'll also note that the Taliban were going around confiscating weapons in the places they conquered.

    Easier to shoot the populace for having insufficiently scruffy beards when you're confident they won't shoot back.

    • Photos, diplomas, IDs...
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by thegarbz ( 1787294 )

      Perspective is important.

      Indeed it is. And the perspective has shown that the Taliban are not going around killing people for not having a beard or showing your hair. They didn't walk into Kabul and mass murder the population (a population largely showing hair and many without beards)

      Get some perspective.

    • having an insufficiently scruffy beard

      Monty Python already brought you the solution to that problem [youtube.com] some decades ago

    • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 18, 2021 @10:44AM (#61704835)

      When the Netherlands were invaded by Nazi Germany in 1940, they already had a very thorough registry of their population, including biometrics (fingerprints) and religious affiliation. This lead to a much bigger proportion of Dutch jews being murdered than jews in other occupied countries. So no, tech is not the least of the Afghani people's problems. The Taliban may be mostly illiterate brutes, but people in power always find morally corrupt people to do their bidding.

    • They were already confident that the people wouldn't shoot back. What I'm saying is don't count on personal firearms to defend against even a rag tag army like the Taliban. I'm not in favor of gun control because I think it's a pointless wedge issue and I want to let it go so we can focus on healthcare and jobs, but I don't like us pretending that individuals with firearms can fight an army. Because doing that encourages us to skip out on the work of maintaining democracy. And we're seeing that right now wi
      • by RightwingNutjob ( 1302813 ) on Wednesday August 18, 2021 @12:24PM (#61705273)

        Mass gun ownership is a conspicuous backstop against tyranny. It is not the foundation of democracy.

        Believing it is is a misapprehension and asserting that all us supposed armchair rambos believe it is synonymous with democracy is either a misapprehension or a deliberate smear.

        Let's just recognize that concentrations of power (and ownership of weapons is power) are generally more dangerous to freedom than diffuse power...and move on.

      • and a significant number of Americans who believe voting is a privilege and not a right.

        No, I think most believe voting is a right of a living US Citizen, and showing ID to verify you are one is not asking for the world.

        Hell, you have to show more ID to get on a freaking airplane these days.

  • The headline and summary reads very differently if you are starting out with the assuming that it was for some reason or another talking about rugs.

    It obviously doesn't take terribly long to figure out what is actually meant here, but holy shit, I think my brain did a quadruple-take.

  • I'd be surprised if any government does't have access to these databases
  • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 18, 2021 @10:22AM (#61704739)

    "Why are you so concerned about privacy? If you've done nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide.
    May anyone who's ever sincerely uttered a phrase like this please hang their head in shame.

    • "Why are you so concerned about privacy? If you've done nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide.
      May anyone who's ever sincerely uttered a phrase like this please hang their head in shame.

      This. I'd ask you not to post as AC since it leaves your post hidden, but then maybe you shouldn't have to identify yourself?

  • by TigerPlish ( 174064 ) on Wednesday August 18, 2021 @10:33AM (#61704783)

    This is exactly why one shouldn't vomit their whole life online. Do we need to see your pictures of you and your buds drinking away before class / work / flight? NO.

    Do we need to see your pictures showing off your latest material acquisition? no. More intel for crooks or the enemy.

    The less one brags, the less ostentatious one is, the more invisible one is to enemies, criminals, and unfriendly tyrannical governments. And these days invisible is good.

    If you wouldn't say it to a cop, robber or helpful Government Official, or your boss or spouse / SO, then don't put it online.

    • by Mitreya ( 579078 ) <mitreya.gmail@com> on Wednesday August 18, 2021 @11:05AM (#61704937)

      If you wouldn't say it to a cop, robber or helpful Government Official, or your boss or spouse / SO, then don't put it online.

      No, sorry, this is highly misleading (true, but misleading). These are not Facebook posts they are talking about!
      Quote from TFA:

      After years of a push to digitise databases in the country, and introduce digital identity cards and biometrics for voting, activists warn these technologies can be used to target and attack vulnerable groups.

      After establishing MANDATORY databases, people are surprised that the data can and will be misused. And being mandatory for some important purpose (e.g., voting, government employment), people HAVE to be in this database.

      • by TigerPlish ( 174064 ) on Wednesday August 18, 2021 @11:19AM (#61705013)

        After establishing MANDATORY databases, people are surprised that the data can and will be misused. And being mandatory for some important purpose (e.g., voting, government employment), people HAVE to be in this database.

        Some of us have looked askance as such things here in the US. But, a lot of naive wide-eyed people still think MANDATORY is a good thing. Usually it isn't.

        Maybe this will wake up people to consider not giving in to the Gov'ts desires. They work for US. Or used to, or are supposed to, anyway.

        In Afghanistan it's different. Taliban took it by force, so everyone works for them. They will force their will on those unable / unwilling to fight.. and will use that nice comprehensive govt'd database to do it.

        Remember Red Dawn, the OG one from the 80's? In that imagined scenario, one first things the invading army did was go find the sporting good stores, pull their FFL books, and start collecting guns from all those law-abiding citizens who had troubled themselves to legally obtain their iron.

        Except in Afghanistan, they're just collecting the guns now. No need to look in the dealer's books, I'm relatively certain there is no such thing over there.

        I get your point. Question is, will all the wide-eyed idealists here get it too?

  • by iamacat ( 583406 ) on Wednesday August 18, 2021 @10:51AM (#61704863)

    Then we have not been told the whole story. Not about them being enlightened human rights lovers, but "a bunch of guys on camels with AK-47s" doesn't add up either. We might be stuck with them being the only government of Afghanistan capable of basic self preservation, even with foreign support. People we installed didn't manage to even form an organized government in exile like occupied countries during WWII, let alone put up some resistance.

    • People you installed ran an organised government for 2 election cycles. The problem was corruption. Corruption led to the government's breakdown in the form of distrust. Corruption led to the army not giving a shit about a government not paying them (why right for those who don't support you).

      America is in no real position to criticise the breakdown in Afghanistan right now.

    • The guy with the AK-47 just has to aim it at the head of the current I.T. guy, to get any desired information.
  • Northern Alliance (Score:5, Informative)

    by backslashdot ( 95548 ) on Wednesday August 18, 2021 @11:11AM (#61704973)

    The northern alliance is regrouping in the Panjshir valley. The least we could do is offer them some support and publicity. Currently being ignored by media and politicians who could assist them.

    https://twitter.com/hajinoorul... [twitter.com]

    https://twitter.com/bbcyaldaha... [twitter.com]

    Ex Afghan national army are being invited to get to the Panjshir valley if they can. Unfortunately the Panjshir valley is landlocked and surrounded so it is challenging to get there.
    https://www.hindustantimes.com... [hindustantimes.com]

    https://www.theweek.in/news/wo... [theweek.in]

  • by jm007 ( 746228 ) on Wednesday August 18, 2021 @11:23AM (#61705043)

    there are many on this forum (and elsewhere) that advocate strong gov't intervention on things like covid-based mandates, social issues, personal health, etc... all with some accompanying "it's for the greater good" rationalization to justify the removal of self-determination and free-will of individuals

    but I would proffer that maintaining the primacy of individual rights also serves a greater good that supercedes all others; it's not perfect, there will always be some that make what would appear to be bad decisions, but that's going to be true regardless

    don't get me wrong, gov't is definitely the best place to handle certain things, but to over-empower it because we don't embrace personal responsibility or need some sort of authoritarian oversight is anathema to the American ideal; for the last few generations we've come to believe that life's problems are in the gov't purview and it does nothing but create corruption, dependency and weakness

    we can see countless examples of authoritarian gov't atrocities and abuse of power but there are still folks that think a large, overreaching, opaque gov't with no accountability is the way to go; I just don't get it... the idea that some distant, disinterested 3rd party would know what's best for me -- even better than I would -- does nothing but reduce me to a child/ward whose main reason for living is to be yoked by others

    Afghanistan is lost, but we can at least learn from their misfortune of living in a regime in which individual rights mean nothing; only power concentrated in the hands of a few, flown under the flag of "God's will", matters there

    only in those places where the concept of individual rights and freedoms have a reasonable foothold do the common folk have a chance to prosper and thrive; no guarantees nor promises of it being a perfect system and there is certainly room for improvement, but we've yet to make a better paradigm

    generally speaking, most folks don't have a problem with one group controlling others, they just want to be sure that they're in the group with the power; I say let's move that power back to individuals and minimize the power of the collective/groups where possible; it does have its uses but let's use it sparingly

  • The elephant in the room is either the Taliban acquired credentials to the biometric database, or worse: it wasn't encrypted and password protected in the first place.

  • They wanted to eradicate the usual way people operate in these countries, where officers often 'hire' non-existing soldiers, policemen, guards and cash their pay themselves.

    Well, it backfired big time.

  • Democracy needs to grow from institutions from within. Trying to shove a bunch of people from an undemocratic culture just ends up creating a bunch of really corrupt, fragile, and unpopular institutions.

    Instead, the US and allies should have committed to 5-10 years of more or less direct rule. Show the Afghans what a stable functional state looks like. At the same time start with elections for town councils, then mayoral elections, then provincial, and finally federal. At each time the local Afghan politici

  • [Human Rights First] quickly published a Farsi-language version of its guide on how to delete digital history - that it had produced last year for activists in Hong Kong - and also put together a manual on how to evade biometrics.

    Their websiite also has a (US) English version. Here's the index page [humanrightsfirst.org] with links to versions of both papers in all three languages.

    Given several political situations in the US I expect this to come in useful here, as well.

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