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Will Facial Recognition in China Lead To Total Surveillance? (washingtonpost.com)
schwit1 shares a new Washington Post article about China's police and security state -- including the facial recognition cameras allow access to apartment buildings. "If I am carrying shopping bags in both hands, I just have to look ahead and the door swings open," one 40-year-old woman tells the Post. "And my 5-year-old daughter can just look up at the camera and get in. It's good for kids because they often lose their keys."
But for the police, the cameras that replaced the residents' old entry cards serve quite a different purpose. Now they can see who's coming and going, and by combining artificial intelligence with a huge national bank of photos, the system in this pilot project should enable police to identify what one police report, shared with The Washington Post, called the "bad guys" who once might have slipped by... Banks, airports, hotels and even public toilets are all trying to verify people's identities by analyzing their faces. But the police and security state have been the most enthusiastic about embracing this new technology.
The pilot in Chongqing forms one tiny part of an ambitious plan, known as "Xue Liang," which can be translated as "Sharp Eyes." The intent is to connect the security cameras that already scan roads, shopping malls and transport hubs with private cameras on compounds and buildings, and integrate them into one nationwide surveillance and data-sharing platform... At the back end, these efforts merge with a vast database of information on every citizen, a "Police Cloud" that aims to scoop up such data as criminal and medical records, travel bookings, online purchase and even social media comments -- and link it to everyone's identity card and face.
The pilot in Chongqing forms one tiny part of an ambitious plan, known as "Xue Liang," which can be translated as "Sharp Eyes." The intent is to connect the security cameras that already scan roads, shopping malls and transport hubs with private cameras on compounds and buildings, and integrate them into one nationwide surveillance and data-sharing platform... At the back end, these efforts merge with a vast database of information on every citizen, a "Police Cloud" that aims to scoop up such data as criminal and medical records, travel bookings, online purchase and even social media comments -- and link it to everyone's identity card and face.
They already restricted freedoms for everybody living legally in the country. This is just a reminder to those of us in currently freer countries that you need to GTFO now, because while there may be cracks you can slip through now, the next generation of cracks you might not be smart enough to find and scurry through.
The UK, then US and then EU will be next in following these Ambitious plans. I am sure Russia would love to as well, but I just don't seen them having/putting the finances necessary in place to actually reach the total surveillance state that China is capable of, thanks to its large influx of first world money. But given how many companies China now owns/is a majority investor in other countries, people elsewhere should be concerned as well. The Manchurian Candidate is about to win all.
As of last August, Facebook could recognise you with 83% accuracy when your face was not visible in photos. Covering your face won't matter. https://www.privateinternetacc...