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Minority Report Style Iris Scanners In Mexico

Posted by samzenpus on from the scanning-your-way-around-town dept.

TheRealPacmanJones writes "Biometrics R&D firm Global Rainmakers Inc. (GRI) announced today that it is rolling out its iris scanning technology to create what it calls 'the most secure city in the world.' In a partnership with Leon, one of the largest cities in Mexico with a population of more than a million, GRI will fill the city with eye-scanners. The scanners will help revolutionize law enforcement not to mention marketing."

33 of 187 comments (clear)

  1. Phooey. by ScrewMaster · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I hate it when filmmakers are just a little too prophetic.

    --
    The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
    1. Re:Phooey. by stonewallred · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Screw that, I am buying stock in the wrap around mirror shades companies. More scanners will result in more sales, until the governments mandate you must not hide your eyes. How about colored contacts or non colored contacts with just enough distortion to screw the sensors?

    2. Re:Phooey. by tepples · · Score: 2, Interesting

      More scanners will result in more sales, until the governments mandate you must not hide your eyes.

      It wouldn't be too far removed from France's burqa ban.

  2. Oookay. by Securityemo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So now it will be illegal to wear sunglasses in Mexico?

    --
    Emotions! In your brain!
    1. Re:Oookay. by Nerdfest · · Score: 2, Informative

      Most iris recognition uses the infra-red spectrum, so sunglasses won't help unless they block those frequencies.

  3. Secure? by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 5, Interesting

    'the most secure city in the world.'

    Not if you live, work or visit there. They need basic protections from drug gangs and their corrupt government, military and police. They don't need these scanners, they need millions of bullet proof vests.

    1. Re:Secure? by Nethead · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Oh, we understand the concept. Look what happened to Iraq when we overthrew Saddam. We broke it, we bought it.

      --
      -- I have a private email server in my basement.
    2. Re:Secure? by stonewallred · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Hmm, that logic could easily be extended to our efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan and even with Islam in total. Somebody alert Beck that we have a solution to our problems, kill them all and let the invisible sky wizard of your own choosing sort them out.

    3. Re:Secure? by mangu · · Score: 5, Insightful

      They need basic protections from drug gangs and their corrupt government, military and police

      They need their big rich neighbor in the North to decriminalize recreational drugs.

      Chicago was also a violent and corrupt city when the recreational use of ethanol was unconstitutional.

    4. Re:Secure? by Balthisar · · Score: 5, Informative

      Actually, Leon isn't a drug lord infested stink hole like some other parts of Mexico. It's slogan was (until recently) "The best city for living in!" And it's really kind of true. The state that it's in was one of the first to throw off the shackles of the ruling PRI (you know, they guys that never gave up power after the Mexican revolution), and it progressed as a result. The previous president of Mexico (Fox, the first non-PRI president in those 71 years) was from the outskirts of Leon. Their public transportation (non-subway) system is a model for the world, and it's being adopted for many parts of Mexico City (where I currently live, and is a shithole, even the "exclusive" neighborhood where corporate housing has me). Potable water, good infrastructure, lots of various industry, a very good, middle-class standard of living, and less-than-average corruption in their police force.

      Generally speaking, Leon is /already/ one of the safest cities in Mexico.

      I go to Leon quite extensively, and so the iris scanner thing actually kind of gives me the heebie-jeebies.

      --
      --Jim (me)
    5. Re:Secure? by fafalone · · Score: 2, Informative

      They need to take the vast majority of the money away from the cartels. No profit removes the incentive for violence and the ability to corrupt large portions of the government. Too bad that "sends the wrong message". God forbid the people getting high illegally now be able to do it legally, and receive treatment instead of a record leaving no other path than crime. (No, there's no evidence legalization means more addiction, see the Netherlands and Portugal).

    6. Re:Secure? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I feel like it's redundant to point out examples of the kind of thing you're talking about since you already mentioned Pinochet or Franco. Nevertheless, I'm going to point out that what you're talking about is exactly what the Taliban were, and look how well they worked out!

      How about, instead of giving up on Mexico as a failed state, give up on drug prohibition as a failed policy. Prohibition of things that people simply are not going to stop paying for just doesn't work. Didn't work for alchohol. The human cost was horrible. It doesn't work for prostitution. There all it does is create a class of professionals who are constantly the victims of felonies (violence, robbery, rape, enslavement, etc.) because they're committing misdemeanors and they pretty accurately perceive that if they go to the police with a complaint, they'll be prosecuted for their lesser crimes as low-hanging fruit while those who victimize them largely get away with it. It doesn't work with gambling. One of my sisters exes is a poker addict (he's convinced he can make a living at it because, in his head, he counts his profits when he wins, but never his losses) who apparently plays in some vice den where a good quarter of the patrons are police officers. He doesn't play in the state-licensed gambling establishments because they're frankly more exploitive than the sleazy vice den. The state controls gambling, theoretically to protect people from its dangers, and yet is addicted enough to the revenues that it runs ad campaigns trying to get more people to play the lottery. Drug prohibition has turned large parts of the world into war zones. Meanwhile, the actual supply hasn't been stemmed at all. As stupid as many may have found Nancy Reagan's "Just say no!" policy, it's probably the only part of the drug war that's even been remotely effective. They should just drop prohibition and shift all that effort into proper education. That would never fly in the US, of course, where the CYA principle is so firmly entrenched that stupid stuff like abstinence-only can be substituted in for sensible sex-ed. Any drug education would be similarly neutered crap. What kids need is realistic information on what the effects and dangers of various drugs are, instead they get macho crap from some D.A.R.E. officer telling them they'd better stay of drugs or they'll get busted and then end up being raped in prison.

      If the US and other major drug importing nations dropped prohibition and growing the drugs became a legal industry in Mexico, the drug gangs wouldn't vanish overnight. To start with, they'd probably try to keep their control over the drug industry, essentially running protection rackets on farmers producing the drugs. Over time, with the farmers no longer having anything to fear from law enforcement, plus everyone slowly realizing that there's now no effective difference between a cocaine producer and a lima bean producer, and that the money just isn't there in drugs anymore, their concentration in that industry should fade away and their members would probably move on to all kinds of other crime or maybe even legit jobs in some cases. Anyway, it would probably take decades for all the damage and corruption to fade away, but it's a better solution than some all out war that creates "peace" and "order" while filling quiet mass graves in the hills.

    7. Re:Secure? by h4rr4r · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I am too, free speech lets me easily identify sociopaths and general nutcases I don't want to be around quite often.

    8. Re:Secure? by happyfeet2000 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      After throwing the PRI out, PAN, a conservative party, took over. A fundamentalist sector of which, El Yunque, is the one calling the shots in the state. An example of the type of society they have in mind is the sentencing of Araceli Camargo to 26 years of prision for an spontaneous abortion when she was 18 yers old after a very unfair and corrupt filled trial. The punishment for abortion in this state is 3 years in prision, in order to increase the penalty she was accused of murdering a relative. The fiscal attorney had all the support from the government, so no chance she would walk away free. If you read the records of the process you'll find every dirty trick on the book. 30 more ladies have already been sentenced to similar terms, and 166 more are waiting for the trial, if you can call this medieval farce a trial. Now imagine giving this kind of government total power over your privacy...shudder...

  4. what a joke by Schlemphfer · · Score: 3, Funny

    Mexico is a failed state well on its way to anarchy. This is a country that can't even keep its police chiefs from getting assassinated by drug cartel thugs, and they think iris scanners are going to make a damned bit of difference? Give me a break.

    --
    I'm generally "Interesting," "Insightful," and even "Funny" here. What the hell happens to me at parties?
    1. Re:what a joke by losttoy · · Score: 4, Funny

      Here's how iris scanners can help fend off an attack. When attacked: 1. Throw an iris scanner real hard at the attacker. Don't worry if you miss, there are plenty more around you. 2. Offer an iris scanner to the attacker (should sell well on ebay) 3. Point iris scanner at the attacker and threaten to vapourize them. 4. Quickly hack into the iris database, delete attacker's identity. This will lead the attacker to question his existence and the attacker will simply implode. 5. Run! of course, iris scanner plays no role here.

    2. Re:what a joke by c0lo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      and they think iris scanners are going to make a damned bit of difference?

      Yes, they are going to make a difference! For the official(s) that took the bribe to push this ahead and for the company providing the scanners. How big the difference ? For certain, more than a bit, but I can't say how big.

      --
      Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
    3. Re:what a joke by ScrewMaster · · Score: 2, Informative

      Much the same may be said of the United States. Out of seven major signs of being a third world country with a first world public image, it is exhibiting seven.

      Uh, what? A superpower in decline is NOT the same thing as a third world country. Not yet, anyways

      My girlfriend is from the real third world (she emigrated to the U.S. many years ago) ... she could tell you how full of crap you are.

      --
      The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
    4. Re:what a joke by turbotroll · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Much the same may be said of the United States. Out of seven major signs of being a third world country with a first world public image, it is exhibiting seven.

      An obligatory link: 10 Signs The U.S. is Becoming a Third World Country

    5. Re:what a joke by turbotroll · · Score: 2

      Mexico is a failed state well on its way to anarchy. This is a country that can't even keep its police chiefs from getting assassinated by drug cartel thugs, and they think iris scanners are going to make a damned bit of difference? Give me a break.

      This comment fully deserves a +5 score, but why is it modded as "Funny"? This is not funny, it's the tragic truth of Mexico's brutal reality.

    6. Re:what a joke by Penguinisto · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Much the same may be said of the United States.

      I'm guessing that you've never really lived in, or even visited, a real third-world country - at least not outside of the usual tourist areas.

      If you had, you'd know that the stereotypical boutique comparison you're trolling is more often than not fueled by people who either:

      * have a specific (radical/fascist/Utopian/bullshit) agenda to "fix" the "problems".
      -or-
      * want attention badly - usually for monetary gain, power, and/or notoriety (see also cable news commentators, talk radio hosts, bloggers, the not-so-intelligent politicians among us, et al).
      -or-
      * desperately want to look like an iconoclastic philosopher in order to get laid at college parties.

      /P

      --
      Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
  5. Luckily.... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm sure that "Global Rainmakers Inc."(Seriously, could you have come up with something creepier?) have a foolproof plan for making sure that half the people involved aren't on one or more cartel payrolls, using the systems for tracking and assassinations, before the hardware is even in the field...

  6. I think I can speak for all of us when I say by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "In the future, whether it's entering your home, opening your car, entering your workspace, getting a pharmacy prescription refilled, or having your medical records pulled up, everything will come off that unique key that is your iris," says Jeff Carter, CDO of Global Rainmakers. Before coming to GRI, Carter headed a think tank partnership between Bank of America, Harvard, and MIT. "Every person, place, and thing on this planet will be connected [to the iris system] within the next 10 years," he says.

    BURN IN HELL, MOTHERFUCKER!

    --
    No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
    1. Re:I think I can speak for all of us when I say by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The particular technology doesn't matter. Do you really want to live in a world where every time you "enter your home, your car, your workspace, get a prescription filled, etc.", it's recorder in a database? Do you want "every person, place and thing on this planet" (these are his quotes, not mine) recorded? TFA goes on with quotes from him tracking movements (truckers to start) and extolling the complete loss of privacy for everyone "on the planet". I say we start by tracking this miserable salesfuck and his family 24x7 and publishing it, see how wonderful he thinks it is.

      --
      No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
    2. Re:I think I can speak for all of us when I say by ScrewMaster · · Score: 2, Funny

      "In the future, whether it's entering your home, opening your car, entering your workspace, getting a pharmacy prescription refilled, or having your medical records pulled up, everything will come off that unique key that is your iris," says Jeff Carter, CDO of Global Rainmakers. Before coming to GRI, Carter headed a think tank partnership between Bank of America, Harvard, and MIT. "Every person, place, and thing on this planet will be connected [to the iris system] within the next 10 years," he says.

      BURN IN HELL, MOTHERFUCKER!

      Personally, I think that a lot of this crap would just STOP if medical science would find a penis enlargement pill that actually works. Frankly, I think there are a lot of men in government and the private sector that are seriously underendowed, and have to compensate by fucking over the rest of us, as if it's our fault that Nature dealt them a ding instead of a dong.

      --
      The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
    3. Re:I think I can speak for all of us when I say by TheNarrator · · Score: 2, Interesting

      "In the future, whether it's entering your home, opening your car, entering your workspace, getting a pharmacy prescription refilled, or having your medical records pulled up, everything will come off that unique key that is your iris," says Jeff Carter, CDO of Global Rainmakers. Before coming to GRI, Carter headed a think tank partnership between Bank of America, Harvard, and MIT. "Every person, place, and thing on this planet will be connected [to the iris system] within the next 10 years," he says.

      But wait there's more, It will also be the lower 64 bits of your ipv6 address whenever you do anything online. You don't think we made 128 bits of Ip space and wasted all that bandwidth for nothing, do you?

    4. Re:I think I can speak for all of us when I say by chord.wav · · Score: 2, Interesting

      So unabomber was right after all uh?

      For the record, I don't approve his methods. But his manifesto is a good read.

  7. Well by ignuss · · Score: 5, Informative

    I actually live in León, and I haven't heard anything about this (not ads, not rumours, nothing). So yeah, I kind of find the note somewhat not-believable. And for the guy that said that México is in its way to anarchy, lol @ you.

    1. Re:Well by MidnightBrewer · · Score: 2, Interesting

      This article strikes me as a bit far-fetched. I'm curious to see if there's any news of this going anywhere in the future.

      BTW, the GRI website is under the confusing name of hoyosgroup.com, and seems a bit fishy. No actual photos of staff (just generic clipart-ish silhouettes), and their claims of being able to capture a person's iris at over fifty feet moving at 1.5m/sec? Really? What kind of camera do they use for that? Just sayin'.

      --
      "Give a man fire, and he'll be warm for a day; set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life
  8. Re:Which film? by stonewallred · · Score: 2, Informative

    Said you can't in TFA. Eye loses blood pressure and screws up reading. Now wonder if surgery could alter the amount of pressure enough to screw scanner, while preserving vision? Maybe an ophthalmologist reads /. and can answer?

  9. FTFA by twright0 · · Score: 2, Insightful
    FTFA:

    ...why would any law-abiding resident ever volunteer to scan their irises into a public database, and sacrifice their privacy? GRI hopes that the immediate value the system creates will alleviate any concern... And he has a warning for those thinking of opting out: "When you get masses of people opting-in, opting out does not help. Opting out actually puts more of a flag on you than just being part of the system. We believe everyone will opt-in."

    If you're a law-abiding citizen, you have nothing to hide, and thus couldn't possibly object.

    what the FUCK

  10. Just more proof that... by CorvisRex · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Phillip K. Dick should be required reading for all kids. That way when they grow up and begin making decision that effect others, they just might(maybe) say, "Wow, I read something like this when I was a kid, it didn't turn out so well if I remember correctly." The reason so many Science Fiction writers can often be prophetic is that they look at a technology or an idea, and ask "I wonder what could go wrong with this?", "What will this idea mutate into in 100 years?" They think about the horrible, painful, or just bizarre turns technology and ideas can take. It is usually intended as social commentary, but is most often ignored...
    Maybe they are just more in-tuned with the spirit of Murphy's Law than most....

  11. Re:Phooey. Yeah it was. by jgrahn · · Score: 2, Informative

    I hate it when filmmakers are just a little too prophetic.

    Or maybe writers like Philip K Dick?

    I can't recall any iris scanner in the original story ...