Slashdot Mirror


British Cops Will Scan Every Fan's Face At the Champions League Final (vice.com)

Using a new facial recognition surveillance system, British police will scan every fan's face at the UEFA Champions League on June 3rd and compare them to a police database of some 500,000 "persons of interest." "According to a government tender issued by South Wales Police, the system will be deployed during the day of the game in Cardiff's main train station, as well as in and around the Principality Stadium situated in the heart of Cardiff's central retail district." From the report: Cameras will potentially be scanning the faces of an estimated 170,000 visitors plus the many more thousands of people in the vicinity of the bustling Saturday evening city center on match day, June 3. Captured images will then be compared in real time to 500,000 custody images stored in the police information and records management system alerting police to any "persons of interest," according to the tender. The security operation will build on previous police use of Automated Facial Recognition, or AFR technology by London's Metropolitan Police during 2016's Notting Hill Carnival.

89 comments

  1. Never look up by arth1 · · Score: 2

    The stereotypical dystopian world where people shuffle around without ever looking up is already here.
    We just didn't know that cameras would be the reason.

    1. Re:Never look up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe not so bad in the hands of a democracy, but when some lesser form of government implement this - ouch.

    2. Re: Never look up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh please. Countries without rights are safer.

    3. Re: Never look up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This. Seattle has a lot of violence downtown, but there aren't just enough cameras. We need more surveillance and fewer rights.

    4. Re:Never look up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      then the spooks activate the selfie cams on the phones people *are* looking at.

    5. Re:Never look up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Democracies turn for the worse occasionally. It's probably not a great idea to build a turn key oppression platform, ready and able to perform, when the next Hitler is elected.

    6. Re:Never look up by kamapuaa · · Score: 1

      You mean like the Hunger Games? Because that book was awesome!

      --
      Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
    7. Re:Never look up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We just didn't know that cameras would be the reason.

      Yes we knew. See telescreen cameras in Nineteen Eighty-Four.

    8. Re:Never look up by slashrio · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Sometimes the implementation of this kind of measures is a warning sign of such government to come.
      About two years before WW 2 broke out, somebody in Dutch government thought it would be a good idea to register all people's religions. Catholics, Protestants and, of course, Jews.
      The then under secretary of state (or whatever you call that position) didn't agree and refused. He was forcefully replaced with a more docile one, and the measure was implemented and completed anyway, just before WW 2 broke out.
      We now know how this helped the German Nazi's with separating the Jews from the non-Jews and shipping them off to labor camps where they were physically abused, mostly until death followed.
      I don't think this was a coincidence, so prepare for what might be coming your way after all cash is gone and the Americans' guns are taken from them.
      Probably by a law they all agree with.

      --
      "Trump!!", the new Godwin.
    9. Re:Never look up by jandersen · · Score: 2

      The stereotypical dystopian world where people shuffle around without ever looking up is already here.
      We just didn't know that cameras would be the reason.

      In light of the now several terrorist attacks on major, public events, I think the majority of people will welcome this. We are not all paranoid about surveillance - I personally tend to look at cameras with positive interest and sometimes wave at the (potential) guy at the other end. Silly, I know, and no doubt you will call me an idiot or worse, but I know what I am and I am self-assured enough to feel comfortable about it, so what what do I care?

      When people go to a football match, perhaps bringing their young child, the last thing they want is a group of hooligans ruining it for everybody with their mindless stupidty; or some worthless tosser with a grievance against society, who decides that getting himself killed after maiming and killing a load of innocent spectators, somehow makes sense or earns him brownie points in eyes of God.

    10. Re:Never look up by arth1 · · Score: 1

      I personally tend to look at cameras with positive interest and sometimes wave at the (potential) guy at the other end. Silly, I know, and no doubt you will call me an idiot or worse, but I know what I am and I am self-assured enough to feel comfortable about it, so what what do I care?

      That would be "worse".
      The three letter agencies are not your friends, and it doesn't matter what you know you are, what matters for them is to do their job, which includes investigating matches. Looking at numbers, the risk of becoming a false positive seems far higher than the chance of them picking the right person.

      No matter how innocent you are, cops coming to fetch you at work or swatting your home with neighbors watching is not going to make your future bright, no matter how comfortable and carefree you are now.

      And "worse" because what you do when deliberately offering your face to the cameras, is increasing the size of the haystack. And worse, smiling decreases the reliability of facial recognition, and increases the risk of false positives.
      More hay to sift through, and more hay that can be mistaken for a needle. That's counterproductive.
      Any cops who get your image popping up as a potential match are not going to be grateful to you for their extra work investigating and clearing you.

      Given that you don't seem to be an idiot, as evidenced by clear writing, I call your actions "not even stupid".

    11. Re:Never look up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither. You do not have the right to give away my liberties. You are responsible for your own safety ultimately.

    12. Re:Never look up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://www.freestateproject.org/

      If you don't want to be the next victim you've got to organize with others who think like you do. That's what the Free State Project is all about. Organizing those who desire freedom to move to a region where people can work together for freedom and liberty. The Free State Project is far from perfect- but it's nearly entirely made up of people who are advocating for freedom and liberty over "safety at any cost". To the extant most want to do away with permission slips for driving, guns (actually already the case, got rid of conceal carry permits this year), and similar where there is no victim. Certainly you could end up with victims if people were taking risks- but we already have that scenario and the police already have power to arrest without there being licenses/permits in cases where someone has hurt another or even creating a significant danger. Plus licenses are known for not actually being there to protect people. Really they can't. One can pass a drivers test and still driver unsafely and that is the majority of accidents, not from those incapable of driving. Drivers licenses didn't start out as a safety measure and until 1969 there were still states that had no driving tests.

    13. Re:Never look up by slashrio · · Score: 1

      The problem with this free state is that this state has to decide on what currency to use and how to back it. Then they'll find that backing it with gold and having the state run the central bank, exclusively issuing money, is the best idea ever, so the population will not get sucked empty by a bunch of predatory private banks, but will pay interest to the state, which transforms that into infrastructure, health care and education, and what not.
      Then that free state will prosper like no other state, except maybe North Dakota in a way, which already has a state run central bank.
      Then the Federal Reserve Bank (which isn't Federal, doesn't have any reserve and actually isn't a bank, but rather a lobbying institute for the various large private banks) will notice that, (order Trump--or whoever is the POTUS--to) send the military and there goes the 'free state'. Oh wait, maybe they'll send the terrorists to fight the proxy war for them, so they can't be tied to the demise of the free state.

      --
      "Trump!!", the new Godwin.
  2. Minority Report by Moheeheeko · · Score: 2

    Time to get into the face transplant business.

    1. Re:Minority Report by x0ra · · Score: 1

      It's already exist, it's called "face paint". It's enough to disrupt the "AI" behind the matching.

    2. Re:Minority Report by networkBoy · · Score: 2

      Nah, just sell those glasses frames that confused facial recognition systems:
      http://www.theverge.com/2016/1...
      *everyone* is the Queen of England.

      --
      whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
    3. Re:Minority Report by Tablizer · · Score: 2

      Just have somebody pummel your face so it swells all funny. I'll volunteer to assist. You might even look better after.

    4. Re:Minority Report by dwywit · · Score: 2

      They're talking about an event on June 3rd. Males can take advantage of this time frame by 1. growing a full beard, if they don't normally have a beard, or 2. if they do normally wear a beard, shave it off on June 2nd. That, a couple of team logo decals on your cheeks and forehead, and a pair of dazzle glasses or sunglasses should take care of it. A celebrity-face t-shirt (perhaps an image of one of your team's players) will help.

      Maybe some gimmick sunglasses with LEDs flashing away around the rims.

      --
      They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
    5. Re:Minority Report by infolation · · Score: 3, Interesting
      On slashdot that would work. But meanwhile in the real world of UK policing:
      • Police spotters identify the individuals with facepaint/hoods/etc.
      • Police approach them and ask them for name & ID (eg debit card) to weed out the 'ordinary people'.
      • If anyone resists, claims their rights not to give name, are belligerent etc, police wave a drug dog somewhere near them which barks on cue (signal from handler)
      • Police now have 'reasonable suspicion' and demand name, address, DoB etc. If they think the person might be of interest, they'll run an on-the-spot fingerprint scan against the Police National Computer.

      Am not saying this is right, but have seen this happen many times at festivals, protests, demonstrations, rallys etc.

    6. Re:Minority Report by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Interesting note: in Virginia, you can be arrested and charged for wearing anything that obscures your face in public, including face paint.

    7. Re:Minority Report by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Arrest all women in that place! Painted Sirens of SATAN!

  3. Security Theatre by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Calling it snake oil is offensive to snakes.

  4. Boycott by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Boycott the event.

    The only thing that talks is money.

    1. Re: Boycott by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am sure they would just claim the lack of attendance proves their cameras keep criminals away.

    2. Re:Boycott by DrXym · · Score: 1
      Yes because UEFA controls the police operation doesn't it? And UEFA is really going to put its foot down on tech that is there to weed out people convicted of violent crimes, fans with match bans, suspected terrorists etc. from attending the game. Because it's not like Europe has a general problem with football match violence or terrorism to be concerned about is it?

      Back in the real world, the police plan the operation and they are going to bring all the tools to bear that the law allows for.

  5. Face Off by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Would be the correct title then.

    And a better movie. At least it's not all preachy with morals and crap.

    1. Re:Face Off by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Face Off is worse than any movie ever made.

    2. Re:Face Off by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Minority Report was better than the film with the Sixth Sense's kid as a robot kid and Jude Law as a Blade Runner.

    3. Re:Face Off by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wasn't Jude Law's character supposed to be a robot gigolo? I don't remember him being anything like a blade runner.

  6. Tip for those potentially impacted by this: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Research CV Dazzle ( https://cvdazzle.com/ ).

    You may look like a dickhead cyberpunk-wannabe, but it beats getting flagged by a fascist-bot. You're welcome.

    1. Re: Tip for those potentially impacted by this: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sure, put that on. Get auto flagged.

    2. Re:Tip for those potentially impacted by this: by DrXym · · Score: 1

      Yeah it'll work great in the sense that it will single you out for even more attention.

  7. In related news ... by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

    ... Amazon servers incorrectly responded to a DDoS:

    Groucho Marx Glasses

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  8. "Scan Every Fan's Face" by Tablizer · · Score: 2

    I'm going, but since I'm not a fan, I won't be scanned.

    -1 Literal Pandemic

  9. oblig (at this point) by globaljustin · · Score: 1

    Nice work Airstrip One.

    --
    Thank you Dave Raggett
  10. We need enforced standards by Baron_Yam · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The American definition of 'Person of Interest' is someone who has not been formally accused or charged with a crime, which means they don't have enough evidence yet. If you don't have enough to charge a person, you shouldn't have enough to run public facial recognition scans for them.

    If you're ready to arrest them on sight, that's enough for me. That's a good standard.

    But what about everyone else? Do you really think the cops won't keep every face they capture, for comparison against future images from security cameras? Do you think they won't start analyzing who shows up where and the correlation with criminal activity to create lists of suspects?

    They cast this net as far and wide as the technology permits unless and until they're reined in by law. Given enough cameras and enough processing power, they'd gladly follow every citizen all day long, because it'd make their job much easier.

    The public needs to decide just how much privacy they're willing to sacrifice in the name of security, and get their legislative representatives to give that decision the force of law... or the cops will take all their privacy without even blinking. Not because they're evil, but because their job is to catch bad guys, not consider the moral and philosophical issues of the tools and methods they use to catch them.

    1. Re:We need enforced standards by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

      The public needs to decide just how much privacy they're willing to sacrifice in the name of security, and get their legislative representatives to give that decision the force of law... or the cops will take all their privacy without even blinking.

      I believe the UK has already lost this battle.

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    2. Re:We need enforced standards by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      The UK did that when it to had to deal with Ireland related funding and support issues in the 1960-90's.
      All the UK did was focus on every existing and emerging network of people, lawyers, banking, faith and media that offered political cover, peace groups and political fronts, international funding and supply network that supported Irish interests.
      All telco networks into and out of Ireland, every interesting person in the UK and Ireland. Low cost, easy for the UK gov and such methods got results globally.

      The problem for the US is that such smart use of gov, clandestine services and mil that would not allow for massive private sector security sector growth.
      The profit is in renting and selling services, products, devices, support, security education to a city, state, nation, police, mil and gov.
      Massive computer networks that have to scan every face, to keep city, state and federal photo databases updated. To work with 2d face images from low quality side images. To sort plain text date collect it all data thats been decrypted by the private sector for a service fee.
      Every face is match to their government documents, all hops of private sector social media use, any and all other gov, mil and private sector databases.
      That sorting, ensuring common plain text data standards, decryption, social media access, nation wide clandestine networking support, rapid new secure networking, staff education is decades of gov money on the table for the private sector.

      The other big fear in the US mil is the courts, telco staff, court staff, police, dual citizens and media are leaking/selling/giving US clandestine methods to criminals, religions, other nations.
      Too many people got into the US gov and mil too easy and are now in positions to tell their cults, faiths, own nations about advance US collection methods.
      Thats why the feds hide from good lawyers and political questions about facial recognition and all the public/private/mil databases they have access to.
      So the US falls back on the private sector to try and ensure gov security. The theory that loss of a gov/mil bid will always ensure good private sector security. The US gov has to pay in full for such private sector security to cover for its own gov hiring practices and lack of any real background information on successful gov/mil applicants and random new US gov workers.
      Standards to focus in on interesting people would just reduce profits and see more lobbying by the private security sector to keep the gov funds flowing.
      Standards would see a loss in profits with select secret mil operations that would be too successful. Gov success using its own mil experts is not good for private sector sales.
      No standards opens new areas of pure private sector profit to track everyone globally. Spread out globally and more cash is always needed to fix issues.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    3. Re:We need enforced standards by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How are you supposed to know which faces belong to criminal suspects and which do not before you scan them?

    4. Re:We need enforced standards by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      Wikileaks through the efforts of Julian Assange and the rest of the Wikieleaks team https://wikileaks.org/-Partner... and http://www.wikileaks-forum.com..., we know that the US governments consider every single person on this planet as a person of interest, someone who might need to be controlled, a potential target and they did disclose their intent to specifically target political activists for thought crimes.

      Lets be blunt, you idiots worry about facial recognition at a sporting venue, what the fuck do you think they have been doing with your smart phones and passwords when they leave you sight as customs, taking data off, get real, putting stuff on is their goal, total control with total data, we are talking seriously sick psychopathic fuckers and not tomorrow but yesterday, in fact operating for years and years. Want to know slavery go cashless socities with mobile monitors and controls, George Orwell could not even dream of what is actually being constructed by an extremely corrupt US government.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    5. Re:We need enforced standards by davesays · · Score: 1

      The pit bulls are a good thing, so is the chain. The pit bulls running into the chain is an important event - sad the political pit bulls have no chain. that spells disaster for the innocent public that needs the chain...

    6. Re:We need enforced standards by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Having additional information in this fashion on "persons of interest" (which can also include political or business rivals of one's employers, as well as journalists or dissenters) helps in many ways: more angles and examples of the face can help ensure that somewhere in the database there's AN angle with a certain level of lighting that makes for a superb match to some random sketch or image of the zodiac killer.

        It's also useful for sheer intimidation: This is you. This is you at the bar. This is you in bed with your wife. This is you hugging your daughter. This is your daughter all alone in that hallway over there. This is your daughter in the bathroom - we got that one from the FBI they're into that. This is your daughter's school. This is your daughter's road home. This is that one streetcorner that's fairly dark that your wife crosses on her way home at night. We don't like how left-leaning your geology reports have gotten, Mr.Doe.

  11. Fairly easy to defeat by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Face dazzle paint in team colors, reversible pattern hoodie and scarf, fake nose and or eyebrows (team colors).

    Hit ratio drops from 50 percent false positive to below threshold.

    Basically, if it worked during WW II, it still works. That's how inaccurate facial recognition actually is. It's even worse for women than for men.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    1. Re:Fairly easy to defeat by TimothyHollins · · Score: 1

      So, Mr Potato Head?

    2. Re:Fairly easy to defeat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What if you dress up like a gorilla?

    3. Re:Fairly easy to defeat by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

      If that's your mascot, but they will probably make you take your head off while going thru security gates (and doing ID there).

      Better off with gorilla eyebrows and whiskers and smart gorilla glasses

      --
      -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    4. Re:Fairly easy to defeat by erapert · · Score: 2

      they will probably make you take your head off

      This is the UK, not France. Geez, didn't you even read the summary?

  12. 2 tickets to sell for Champions League Final by ls671 · · Score: 1

    Hello,

    I have 2 tickets to sell for the Champions League Final. I will make you a good deal.

    --
    Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
  13. Worse by AndyKron · · Score: 1

    It's even worse than Fahrenheit 454

    1. Re:Worse by kamapuaa · · Score: 1

      It's Fahrenheit 455!

      --
      Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
    2. Re:Worse by PFactor · · Score: 1

      That's like 1 worse!

      --
      Don't believe anything I say. I crash test crack pipes for a living.
  14. An amazing probability of failure by davecb · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They have 170,000 * 500,000 faces, for a total of 85,000,000,000 comparisons. If you have a 99% chance of sucess (ie, NOT identifying grandma as a wanted terrorist), then a 1% failure rate will give you 850,000,000 wrong comparisons.

    In tests with football-crowd-sized sets of people, the very best recognizers hit 80% and the worst were below 20% accurate. See http://www.washington.edu/news...

    How many people will be pulled out of line, I wonder, before the police notice that the're getting an larger number of false positives than they were prepared to handle? I wonder if it will identify everyone who shows up as a terrorist (:-))

    --dave
    [The German federal security service noticed this many years ago, when they tried to scan airports with a former employer's product]

    --
    davecb@spamcop.net
    1. Re:An amazing probability of failure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you may be overestimating the number of comparisons. It's entirely possible that the faces are grouped based on particular characteristics and that any given face might be sorted into a group's parameters first, before then being compared to faces within it. It's still likely to be a stupidly big number of comparisons, but a comparison system that is designed with even a slightest degree of intelligence will have many fewer false positives that you are suggesting.

    2. Re:An amazing probability of failure by TheConway · · Score: 2

      you may be overestimating the number of comparisons. It's entirely possible that the faces are grouped based on particular characteristics and that any given face might be sorted into a group's parameters first, before then being compared to faces within it. It's still likely to be a stupidly big number of comparisons, but a comparison system that is designed with even a slightest degree of intelligence will have many fewer false positives that you are suggesting.

    3. Re:An amazing probability of failure by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      I wonder if it will identify everyone who shows up as a terrorist (:-))

      At a British football match doesn't kind of go without saying?

    4. Re:An amazing probability of failure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The context is not about algorithmic speed. Grouping just means that you can "compare" a lot of pairs quickly (ie. skip comparing beause you know its useless).

      If the false positive rate is indeed as awful as 1% it means that if the algorithm put people in 100 buckets, it'd have to stop comparing right there and claim that everyone in the bucket are the same person.

    5. Re:An amazing probability of failure by davecb · · Score: 1

      I quite agree: it's the stupidly-large-number part of the equation that causes the false positives to be insane!

      --
      davecb@spamcop.net
  15. Stop supporting this shit by clonehappy · · Score: 1

    Stop watching sports, turn off the TV. Period. It's the only language these fuckers understand-losing money.

    Hit them where it hurts, make sure you don't spend one dime on any of their products or events.

    Distractionball is only there to keep your mind off of what the elites are really doing, anyway.

    1. Re:Stop supporting this shit by Baron_Yam · · Score: 1

      >Distractionball is only there to keep your mind off of what the elites are really doing, anyway

      Lemmie tell you something - LIFE is a distraction. One after another until you're dead. You just hope you get enough interesting distractions along the way that you mostly enjoy your time among the living.

      If being a sports fan works for someone to the point they surrender their wallet to the media companies and their privacy to the government (and media companies...), well, OK. I'd like everyone to have the same priorities I do, but as long as they're not putting a gun to my head I'm pretty much OK with them doing whatever the hell they want.

      In 100 years we're all going to be dead anyway; let the rabble have their circuses. They're probably having more fun than we are and good for them. The elites, for all the power they wield and riches they have, will ALSO be dead. And believe it or not, they don't enjoy life significantly more than anyone who has their basic needs met. Humans are discontented by nature.

      Now, you find one of the elite doing something that messes with your personal path to happiness, yeah, you rally the troops and storm the castle. Other than that, you're just wasting your valuable time on Earth worrying about them when you should be worrying about yourself.

    2. Re:Stop supporting this shit by clonehappy · · Score: 1

      I'm really not knocking someone who enjoys sports. But shouldn't there be a line in the sand? How much will people really take?

      If no one ever speaks up, they keep pushing and taking more and more. Part of my personal path to happiness is leaving a better world for the next generation than the one I was thrown into. A dystopian surveillance state is not better.

      Besides, are you implying that one should only care about things that personally affect him right this second? If that's the case, I suppose I should just leave my family behind, go buy a Hummer, and spend the rest of my days eating double-cheeseburgers and partying with hookers and blow. Because if my family starves and the Earth cooks itself, well, that's not personally my problem, right?

    3. Re:Stop supporting this shit by Baron_Yam · · Score: 1

      >But shouldn't there be a line in the sand?

      Yes. But I think this one is more of a 'espouse opinion whenever the opportunity comes up, encourage people to write their rep (or even better, their preferred candidate in the next election cycle) and then vote' type situation than a 'grab the pitchforks and torches' one.

      > I suppose I should just leave my family behind, go buy a Hummer, and spend the rest of my days eating double-cheeseburgers and partying with hookers and blow.

      If I can occasionally visit my family, go buy an airplane, and spend the rest of my days eating filet mignon and partying with hookers and alcohol... I could be convinced!

    4. Re:Stop supporting this shit by slashrio · · Score: 1

      Cute, we've seen how this worked when the TSA showed up, groping all passengers in their crotch.

      --
      "Trump!!", the new Godwin.
    5. Re:Stop supporting this shit by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 1

      Cute, we've seen how this worked when the TSA showed up, groping all passengers in their crotch

      Mostly little boys.

      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
  16. Speak up sheeple! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is abhorrent behaviour that needs to be quashed!
    Spread the word, make sure no one goes to this game or any future events like this.
    Express contempt for the system by showing them no numbers, and the event organisers no profits.
    By showing up to this event, you lake privacy, you forfeit your freedoms and you ARE the problem and why the system is squeezing your necks.

    1. Re:Speak up sheeple! by slashrio · · Score: 1

      It's exactly the sheepiness of the sheeple that allowed it to go this far, so no, sheeple won't stop this. You're fucked for not being a sheep.

      --
      "Trump!!", the new Godwin.
    2. Re:Speak up sheeple! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Please don't ever use the word "sheeple" un-ironically, ever again.

    3. Re:Speak up sheeple! by Hognoxious · · Score: 2

      You're fucked for not being a sheep.

      In Cardiff it's the other way round, lookyou.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  17. It's a sports game by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Everyone wear face paint

  18. All Men are Criminals by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    British Cops Will Scan Every Man's Face

    FTFY

  19. Britain is the surveillance capital of the West by UpnAtom · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Theresa May passed what Snowden called "the most extreme surveillance in the history of western democracy. It goes further than many autocracies."

    Before this, airports were making 3D models of flyers' faces without their knowledge or permission, and attaching such to their passport records. This happens if you go through the 'inbound' e-passport aisle. I saw this with my own eyes at Bristol Airport before a security guard shouted at me. There is no law against such data collection.

    I don't know if you can get a ticket with cash but otherwise you can bet these facial/3D scans will be added to a GCHQ database.

    1. Re:Britain is the surveillance capital of the West by TheConway · · Score: 1

      May is irrelevant. I'm pretty sure it's an old internet fact that has some truth to it, that London has more security cameras than most countries on the planet. Just london. And has done for a very long time. This isn't surprising, or new.

    2. Re:Britain is the surveillance capital of the West by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No it isn't. Take the tin-foil hat off. The vast majority of CCTV camera across the nation are fake or not operational. Every single terrorist attack for example has no CCTV footage. The only camera footage is post event, except those that provide the media shots who coincidentally happen to be in the right place at the right time every single time.

    3. Re:Britain is the surveillance capital of the West by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, London has more people than half of the countries on the planet so it's not exactly unexpected that it also has more cameras too;)

  20. wear a penis on your face by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    rofl

  21. Practice run... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Sounds like a practice run to see how well this system works and to get the public used to the idea for when they start using it for political protests, civil disobedience, grassroots organizing, etc.. The ruling elite are terrified of the people right now.

    1. Re:Practice run... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sounds like a practice run to see how well this system works and to get the public used to the idea for when they start using it for political protests, civil disobedience, grassroots organizing, etc..

      What makes you think they're not doing so at present, or have been doing so in the past? This is the filth rolling out something they've been using elsewhere to see how it 'scales'..

      The ruling elite are terrified of the people right now.

      They have always been scared of the plebian class, there's no 'right now' about it.

  22. What will we sacrifice? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We are the modern public, and we will sacrifice ANYTHING for the illusion of security.
    Privacy, dignity, honesty, rationality, freedom of speech and thought and deed, logic, compassion, tradition and caution.
    There is NO price too high for the Modern Chicken Littles - we're scared, we're weak, we've been taught that we're powerless against the bogeymen, so we DESPERATELY need to be reassured that we're "safe", and if that means we have to forgo things that we would otherwise consider important, well, that just goes to show how SERIOUSLY we take these amorphous threats.

    And so we now have ubiquitous tracking (cell phones), ubiquitous surveillance (internet and banking and CC cameras) and ubiquitous mind control (advertising and news as deliberate propaganda) and now the most recent "fake news" meme to make us further distrust whistleblowers and independent reporting.

    We be ROYALLY fucked.

  23. That's why they should ban the burqa by Chrisq · · Score: 0

    That's why they should ban the burqa. The terrorists are the only ones that won't be tracked.

  24. This kind of search should require a warrant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't know, but I feel like this kind of search should require a warrant. A cop should have to have a good reason to initiate an investigation against you. This seems equivalent to Soviet Russia's "papers, please."

  25. It Won't Work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Any hi-tech security measures that are implemented, such as cameras or facial recognition software, mysteriously fails during terrorist attacks. The 9/11 attacks and 7/7 bombings are perfect examples of this.

    In other news, Montreal is aggressively upgrading its public CCTV system. Perhaps Montreal will suffer a 'terrorist attack' next - and the camera's will happen to 'malfunction' that day.

  26. Only 500,000? by jenningsthecat · · Score: 1

    I bet that in this case "persons of interest" comprises every plebe on the whole damned planet. I think this exercise is just an excuse to take a lot of pictures so they can significantly enlarge their 'faces' database, get better photos of faces they already have catalogued, and take note of connections among people to give more detail, depth and breadth to the profiles they're already building on every citizen. This is Big Brother's Big Data at its finest, most perverse, and most dangerous. Look for such 'security initiatives' to become ubiquitous. They'll gradually start targeting smaller and more innocuous public gatherings, until cops with cameras will become commonplace at high-school sporting events and church bake sales.

    --
    'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
  27. I need to open up a shop... by wardrich86 · · Score: 2

    I have a feeling there could be a large market for shirts with this pattern printed on it.

  28. Trust issues by thunderclees · · Score: 1

    The funny thing is that people probably wouldn't mind this except that government just can't keep out of the honey .jar.
    If big gov grew up and showed some ethics and could be trusted to only use this against actual bad people and to throw away the captures it could give them what they want if what they want is just to catch bad guys while not raping privacy.

  29. Help is here: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And it's called URME.

    Really, though, its an intresting concept, but I haven't tested it at all. The paper version may, or may not, work. Still, a step in an unique direction. Instead of defeating facial recognition, give it another face to see. Find someone popular, or pay a stranger, and use thier face. Profit.

    http://www.urmesurveillance.com/

  30. probable cause by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Police should not be examining people unless they have reason to believe they have committed a crime. But these people are known to be English football fans. So I'm not sure how I feel about it. Tough call.

  31. Official Protest by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think an official protest would be in order. They should organize wearing masks.

    Here is a good selection of facemasks of football players:
    https://www.cheap-flyer-printe...