ACLU: Amazon's 'Rekognition' Tool Could Be Used Against Protesters, Immigrants

[Lucian Armasu]

The ACLU revealed that Amazon has been selling facial recognition and surveillance technology to law enforcement, which can be used to track up to 100 people at the same time in crowds.

ACLU: Amazon's 'Rekognition' Tool Could Be Used Against Protesters, Immigrants : Read more

 

[poisonpie]

As much as I don't like facial recognition and tracking being used in public, if you're a "protester" and not rioting you have nothing to worry, because you're not breaking any laws, and if you're an "undocumented immigrant" (read: illegal alien) you don't have any civil rights, being illegal and all. ACLU virtue signaling, as usual.

 

[cryoburner]

Incidentally, Amazon sells another product designed to counter this...

https://www.amazon.com/elope-335030-Elope-Groucho-Black/dp/B00412WY5C/

 

[anbello262]

Really dystopian, reminds me of Minority report but with a lot more accuracy (it won't use just yor eyes)
But I'm part of the crowd who has partially given up, I feel it's time to just accept the fact that the near-future will include this on a daily basis, and I don't feel there¿s anything that can be done to avoid this side of technology.

Therefore, I think it's more important to put more effort into minimizing corruption, so that all this information has the least negative impact possible.

 

[Olle P]

... if you're a "protester" and not rioting you have nothing to worry, because you're not breaking any laws, ...

It's the surveillors that break the law! (At least in Sweden, where it's generally illegal to register individual's religious faith and political beliefs.)

It's also well known, in the UK, that the software currently used by the Police for facial recognition has a very high percentage of false positives.
Keeping track of individual customers in a small store is much easier. I bet they'd run into trouble if they tried to run the store without any other customer identification than having the software matching the entering person to a library of previously registered customers.

 

[phonea21]

Illegal aliens are criminals with no rights at all so mentioning them with this is beyond stupid.

 

[TJ Hooker]

As much as I don't like facial recognition and tracking being used in public, if you're a "protester" and not rioting you have nothing to worry, because you're not breaking any laws

Ah yes, the old 'if you're doing nothing wrong you have nothing to worry about' response to increasing government surveillance.

The point being made isn't that this tech is going to be used to arrest people for simply participating in a protest. I believe the concern being expressed is that it could be used to identify protesters en masse and thereby associate individuals with a particular movement or ideology (based on the nature of the protest), and allow them to be potentially flagged for additional surveillance or monitoring. And at that point it's like when a cop car starts following you before you've done anything wrong: a) if they're determined it's only a matter of time until they find something they can pull you over for; and b) it's unethical and/or illegal.

Maybe a little paranoid, but it wouldn't be the first time US government agencies have done something like that (e.g. COINTELPRO).

 

[TJ Hooker]

if you're an "undocumented immigrant" (read: illegal alien) you don't have any civil rights, being illegal and all.

Illegal aliens are criminals with no rights at all so mentioning them with this is beyond stupid.

Illegal immigrants still have rights, although maybe not all the rights enjoyed by legal residents.
http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2017/mar/29/florida-immigrant-coalition/do-undocumented-immigrants-have-constitutional-rig/

Also, simply being in the USA unlawfully doesn't necessarily make you a criminal.
http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2017/mar/15/florida-conference-catholic-bishops/being-united-states-unlawfully-crime/

 

[Co BIY]

Illegal aliens, women and minorities worst effected.

The "illegal aliens worst effected" argument here is pretty silly since they are the least likely to have a matching photo in the giant government database, unless they are wanted for some crime for which the the government already has a photo.

I believe ANBELLO262 is right to emphasis controlling corruption because we will not be able to prevent the development of the technology.