Soccer Fans, You're Being Watched (wired.com) 50
Stadiums around the world, including at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, are subjecting spectators to invasive biometric surveillance tech. From a report: This fall, more than 15,000 cameras will monitor soccer fans across eight stadiums and on the streets of Doha during the 2022 World Cup, an event expected to attract more than 1 million football fans from around the globe. "What you see here is the future of stadium operations," the organizers' chief technology officer, Niyas Abdulrahiman, proudly told AFP in August. "A new standard, a new trend in venue operations, this is our contribution from Qatar to the world of sport." Qatar's World Cup organizers are not alone in deploying biometric technology to monitor soccer fan activity. In recent years, soccer clubs and stadiums across Europe have been introducing these security and surveillance technologies.
In Denmark, Brondby Stadium has been using facial recognition for ticketing verification since 2019. In the Netherlands, NEC Nijmegen has used biometric technology to grant access to Goffert Stadium. France's FC Metz briefly experimented with a facial recognition device to identify fans banned from Saint-Symphorien Stadium. And the UK's Manchester City reportedly hired Texas-based firm Blink Identity in 2019 to deploy facial recognition systems at Etihad Stadium. In Spain, Atletico Osasuna uses facial recognition to monitor and control access to El Sadar Stadium, while Valencia CF signed a deal in June 2021 with biometrics company FacePhi to design and deploy facial-recognition technology at Mestalla Stadium in the upcoming season. The sport club then became a global ambassador for the company's technology. FacePhi's biometric onboarding technology was already used for a pilot project to enroll Valencia CF fans in an automated access control system that allowed them to get into the stadium using a QR code via the football club's mobile app. (A FacePhi spokesperson declined to provide details about the project but said "that we are not yet in the implementation phase with Valencia CF.")
In Denmark, Brondby Stadium has been using facial recognition for ticketing verification since 2019. In the Netherlands, NEC Nijmegen has used biometric technology to grant access to Goffert Stadium. France's FC Metz briefly experimented with a facial recognition device to identify fans banned from Saint-Symphorien Stadium. And the UK's Manchester City reportedly hired Texas-based firm Blink Identity in 2019 to deploy facial recognition systems at Etihad Stadium. In Spain, Atletico Osasuna uses facial recognition to monitor and control access to El Sadar Stadium, while Valencia CF signed a deal in June 2021 with biometrics company FacePhi to design and deploy facial-recognition technology at Mestalla Stadium in the upcoming season. The sport club then became a global ambassador for the company's technology. FacePhi's biometric onboarding technology was already used for a pilot project to enroll Valencia CF fans in an automated access control system that allowed them to get into the stadium using a QR code via the football club's mobile app. (A FacePhi spokesperson declined to provide details about the project but said "that we are not yet in the implementation phase with Valencia CF.")
(insert any group) You're Being Watched (Score:2)
Is a better headline. As the tech seems to be coming to a lot of places.
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Is a better headline. As the tech seems to be coming to a lot of places.
Surveillance tech is everywhere, that's true. What corporations are doing with that data, is the actual problem.
Headline could read All of your Neighbors have Guns and you probably would care about as much. Which is to say not a whole hell of a lot.
Besides, that whole being watched isn't a threat anymore in a world full of rabid social media narcissists, and Greed knows it.
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Step out your door, you're Being Watched (Score:2)
As soon as you step out your door you're possibly on multiple cameras. If not home & shop security cameras, then traffic cams, and if you go anywhere near a stadium, bus depot, airport, police station, etc., you are probably watched by at least DHS cams, and scanned by AI to see if you're on a terrorist watch list. If you look even semi-suspicious to the AI, your presence probably goes into a database as "insurance".
And many "smart TV's" and laptop cams are probably hacked by foreign gov'ts et. al. so
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Addendum: foreign govt's probably don't activate their tracking except when they have a specific need. Otherwise, they risk the back door being patched or discovered over trivial things.
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Some nerd comes to a sports event and immediately thousands of spectators turn to them and say: "You're not supposed to be here??? Our app said you're not one of us!"
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qatar morality police will be out in force (Score:3)
qatar morality police will be out in force
here's an idea (Score:5, Insightful)
Here's an idea: don't go to Qatar.
Re:here's an idea (Score:4, Informative)
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And they have the gall to say that people should 'focus on the football'.
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A good idea, but too limited: The correct one is: Do not go to: UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran, Iraq and so on..
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Forgot the UK (camera capital of the world for how fucking tiny it is) and don't forget good ole America.
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The difference is: in UK and US people have human rights. In the places I listed you do not.
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It says they're using face-recognition tech. I wonder if they splurged and also purchased the hijab-positioning-verification add-on.
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I have never been to a dictatorship and hope never to go to a dictatorship.
If I did go to a dictatorship, I would not feel entitled to complain about said dictatorship snooping on me.
Unlike, ooh, the poor bastards who have to live and work there, and will continue suffering until people stop visiting said dictatorship.
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I don't go to Qatar, I won't watch the games and I won't buy anything that is a "proud sponsor" of it.
Yes, I know it won't make any difference whatsoever, but I feel better, and that's all I care about. International sports events are an ad platform for countries, and I refuse to watch ads for something like Qatar.
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Here's an idea: don't go to Qatar.
Have you read the article? I guess that's a rhetorical question...
Qatar's World Cup organizers are not alone in deploying biometric technology to monitor soccer fan activity. In recent years, soccer clubs and stadiums across Europe have been introducing these security and surveillance technologies.
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Here's an idea: don't go to Qatar.
That's a good idea, but. ... FOOOOTBALLLLL!
These stories of ${badthing} are great for people who had no intention of going to the world cup. But if you're that much of a football fan that you were going to fly to another country you already do not give a shit about ${badthing}.
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Moss (Score:3)
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The world is a big place, you're going to need to drop more hints if everyone is to have a clue what the heck you're on about.
Oh great... (Score:2)
Bounty System? (Score:2)
Wouldn't wanted posters at the stadiums with bounties be the cheaper option?
Free tickets, scarfs, seat upgrade, meet the players etc.
Oh, the poor dear football fans being *watched* (Score:2)
https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/watch-100-football-hooligans-take-4568019
So what? (Score:2)
I am sure surveillance has hurt many people, BUT, how many people were murdered or raped because of surveillance abuse versus the number of people who died because rapists and murderers weren't caught, or were able to carry out their crimes with impunity, because of the lack of surveillance? When the two numbers are in parity or close to parity, we should fight surveillance abuse. Until then, people are being victimized, and criminals are getting away. Right now we should figure out the best ways to reduce
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Catching a higher percentage of perps is "strict enforcement" ?
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Progress is not a law of nature, it's mostly a happenstance based on factors only some of which are politically correct to recognize.
Over here murder rates only peaked in the 90s and are now rising again, helped by a stabbing epidemic among kids. Brazen terror attacks by organized crime on companies and officials who don't bend the knee on the rise too, narco state.
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Are you sure it's not the increased incarceration rate? From Wikipedia: "In the last quarter of the twentieth century, the incarceration rate in the US increased by a factor of five.[20] Between the years 2001 and 2012, crime rates (both property and violent crimes) have declined 22% after already falling 30% in years prior between 1991 and 2001.[21] In 2012, 710 out of every 100,000 U.S. residents were imprisoned in either local jails, state prisons, federal prisons, and privately operated facilities.[21];
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BUT, how many people were murdered or raped because of surveillance abuse versus the number of people who died because rapists and murderers weren't caught
If the police did their job, you wouldn't need surveillance. When a woman reports an abusive partner, don't dismiss them, and certainly don't treat them as the abuser. You'd save an awful lot of people from being murdered (including the kids), and/or raped.
Hooligans (Score:3)
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Hooligans in football stadiums are - in too many places - out of control.
There are very few hooligans going to world cup games. The overwhelming majority of hooliganism is for national games or Europa league tournaments and often they are limited to a few specific teams targeting a few specific others.
E.g.
The Netherlands vs Scotland, not an issue. Probably won't even call normal police let alone riot police. The most control you need to exert over fans is to direct traffic in the parking lot.
But ... Ajax vs Celtic... The only question you need to ask is what is the body count an
Qatar advises football fans (Score:2)
Qatar advises football fans to focus on the football. Not human rights abuses, nor the surveillance, but the football. So be a good boy and focus on the football.
You certainly should be watched (Score:2)
Anyone who goes there should be watched carefully evermore because they give zero fucks about human rights.
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unfortunately when it comes to proportion of the population, that's somewhere around half, maybe more.
In America, anyone who supports gitmo, plea bargaining, the awful prison system, etc. In the UK you can summarise it as "daily mail readers".
No problem for soccer fans (Score:2)
If you watch soccer, then you WANT to be cheated by soccer clubs and all the *FA's
Sports fans are the neanderthals of modern society (Score:2)
Maybe they need to be watched? Look at the sheer amount of riots and sheer amount of deaths because someone failed to catch a ball or some stupid prehistoric caveman shit.
I'm against a surveillance society in general, but it seems reasonable at sports events where you have so many low IQ morons ready to launch into violence because they can't control their emotions.
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North Carolina State University too! (Score:2)
But before I get to N.C.S.U., I'm not surprised by a repressive govt. like [country]'s doing such a thing.
https://www.technicianonline.c... [technicianonline.com]
' âoeThe main thing to understand about surveillance cameras is that they cannot keep you safe,â [Mike Nutt, a data experience manager at NC State Libraries] said. âoeA camera is not going to make you safer, and the surveillance technology is often misused, whether or not there are good intentions behind the technology. ..." '
I'm willing to bet just about
If jt soeeds thing up.. (Score:2)
Next world cup slot in Xinjiang. (Score:2)
Covering their ass ahead of time (Score:2)
Qatar is worried that there will be heat related deaths and needs to root all phones capable of recording and posting to twitter.