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IBM Used NYPD Surveillance Footage To Develop Technology That Lets Police Search by Skin Color (theintercept.com)

Posted by msmash on from the closer-look dept.

Three months after the American Civil Liberties Union revealed that Amazon provided facial recognition technology to local law enforcement, a new report by The Intercept says that IBM collaborated with the New York City Police Department to develop a system that allowed officials to search for people by skin color, hair color, gender, age, and various facial features. VentureBeat: The Intercept and the National Institute's nonprofit Investigative Fund, citing "confidential corporate documents" and interviews with engineers involved with the project, write that IBM began developing the analytics platform roughly 10 years ago in partnership with New York's Lower Manhattan Security Initiative counterterrorist center, after an earlier experiment with the city of Chicago. Using "thousands" of photographs from roughly 50 cameras provided by the NYPD, its computer vision system learned from 16,000 points to identify clothing color and other bodily characteristics, in addition to potential threats like unattended packages, people entering off-limits areas, and cars speeding up against the flow of traffic.

13 of 241 comments (clear)

  1. Wow by Alypius · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Searching camera feeds based on physical human traits. Quelle horror.

    1. Re:Wow by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Those who fail to study history are doomed to repeat it.

      These things are always abused. Always.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    2. Re:Wow by torkus · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Seriously.

      Reading the title, it implies NYPD is searching for minorities to ... well to do something bad.

      In reality it's search technology for not only skin color but other traits - none of which is inherently racist at all. If someone reports a crime by a 'white male, approx 50 years of age, 6'2 and about 250 pounds with blonde, shoulder length hair' then searching for that is the same as cops walking the beat looking for the same. It's also NOT RACIST if someone reports a crime by the same person but with darker skin and they search for it.

      I'm all for limiting abuses by cops and can certainly agree this COULD be used in bad ways but the article is troll bait, click bait, fake news, and every other horrible thing that's driving our country down the tubes.

      --
      You can get rich if you own a politician, but you have to be rich to buy one in the first place.
    3. Re:Wow by goose-incarnated · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Those who fail to study history are doomed to repeat it.

      These things are always abused. Always.

      Weren't you the one always in favour of giving the state more power? More power to discriminate on basis of both skin colour and gender?

      You're right (now) that these things will always be abused, but you know what - we told you so. Honestly, you're in agreement only if the right sort of discrimination occurs, so this problem is because of people like you. Had you been egalitarian from the get go the state would have less power to enforce discrimination.

      Well Done!

      --
      I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
  2. Re:Classic IBM. by gnick · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What's immoral about this? I understand the objections to mass surveillance, but what's wrong from analyzing the footage to find what you're looking for?

    --
    He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
  3. Can be used evil. by jellomizer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    While this could be open for abuse, I don't think IBM was trying to be racist in this case, it is just a visual factor to help narrow down a search. Just like how law enforcement will also identify people by the tattoos or scars they may have.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    1. Re:Can be used evil. by ibpooks · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You're soft pedaling it. Of course IBM is not being racist, nor are their developers, nor their customers in NYPD. The very implication of it in the title and summary of the OP is a perfect example of the race-baiting, click-baiting business model adopted by the news-entertainment industry which has ruined their credibility.

      It is obvious to anyone that basic physical traits like color and size are essential to locating a person in a crowd, yet they've chosen to make a big deal out of it specifically for the purpose of churning their audience to anger.

  4. Oh no! Low flying panic attack. by sinij · · Score: 4, Funny

    Oh no, someone mentioned skin color. Racist! Racist! Racist.

    Burn the Witch!

    1. Re:Oh no! Low flying panic attack. by torkus · · Score: 4

      Can't win, don't try.

      SJWs will find fault with whatever you say or do. If somehow they can't, they'll go after whatever they think your intent was. Failing that, well you were probably thinking something inappropriate and hateful. As a last resort, they'll claim that THEY felt attacked, marginalized, or otherwise harmed - and you obviously can't attack someone who is a victim. You victim-blamer you! See? Evil to the end.

      Personally i'm offended by any searches of physical attributes that include hair, being bald myself. This surveillance product should be banned!

      --
      You can get rich if you own a politician, but you have to be rich to buy one in the first place.
  5. This is the opposite of racist by alternative_right · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Instead of looking for people by race in this country, we tend to identify them by skin color.

    Race is not skin color; race is a collection of traits which make people from different groups appear, act, and be constructed slightly differently from those of other groups.

    Since we cannot talk about race ("African-American") we identify suspects by description in the news, including skin color. Here's the relevant quotation:

    Using "thousands" of photographs from roughly 50 cameras provided by the NYPD, its computer vision system learned from 16,000 points to identify clothing color and other bodily characteristics, in addition to potential threats like unattended packages, people entering off-limits areas, and cars speeding up against the flow of traffic.

    We are looking at one of the 16,000 point here.

    --
    Alternative Right.
  6. Garbage Title by Digital+Mage · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The title should say:

    "IBM Used NYPD Surveillance Footage To Develop Technology That Lets Police Search by Physical Features"

    ...but I guess that is far less fear mongering than cherry picking out "skin color".

  7. About time... by The+Original+CDR · · Score: 3, Funny

    The NYPD can now go after the purple people eater.

  8. Re:Classic IBM. by dcw3 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Clearly (no color intended), color is a parameter, one of many, in the description of anyone. There's nothing racist about describing the color of someone's skin, or for AI to use it in identifying someone. The fact that you can't accept that says more about the chip on your shoulder than about the facts of the matter.

    Oh, and FU for calling me a racist.

    --
    Just another day in Paradise