You can't have it both ways: Anti-coronavirus masks may thwart our creepy face-recog cameras, London cops admit
- Reference: 1589553785
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/15/met_police_face_recog_facemask_thwarted/
- Source link:
Two London Assembly members, Caroline Pidgeon (Lib Dem) and Sian Berry (Green Party), wrote to Metropolitan Police commissioner Cressida Dick, asking whether the "unreliable, unregulated" technology would be withdrawn during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a letter [1]published [PDF] on the London Assembly website, the two elected representatives said: "We both believe that the way in which LFR [live facial recognition] is being rolled out as an operational tool in London is ill-advised, and that this technology will have a chilling effect on civil liberties if it is not used with clarity, accountability and with full democratic consent."
This episode of Black Mirror sucks: London cops boast that facial-recog creepycams will be on the streets this year [2]READ MORE
On top of that, masks are a potential problem for the technology anyway. London's deployment of Neoface tech supplied by NEC Global relies on people's full faces being visible – something not possible when most Britons will be wearing masks during the coming months.
A Scotland Yard spokeswoman [3]told the Evening Standard, which asked the question about masks: "We are looking at any potential issues to establish how it may impact on future LFR deployments."
Facial-recognition technology in London is seen by police as a high-tech solution to their woes – and managers are determined to roll it out regardless of public opposition to the China-style surveillance. Earlier this year NEC told the nation's press that its internal trials showed an accuracy rate of 70 per cent, though the [4]Met's own trial deployments showed a shocking 98 per cent inaccuracy rate , complete with false-positive matches.
Commander [5]Mark McEwan confirmed in January that if the NEC-supplied black box flags up a match, police will use that as grounds to arrest and search passers-by, saying: "Yes, it [an AFR match] does start that journey of building reasonable ground [for stop and search or arrest] in the same way if I had looked on my laptop, on the briefing pages, before I went out on the street."
Police want the public to believe that the tech is the same as having frontline workers looking at photos of wanted suspects before going out on patrol. The truth is that unmarked facial-recognition CCTV vans are loaded with lists of up to 10,000 suspects, as NEC told us in January – and, according to Pidgeon and Berry, "police do not accept" that only "serious crimes" should be included on watchlists.
For now, there's a temporary reprieve – though police eyes may be turning to [6]recent Chinese developments to work around public health and safety measures. ®
[1] https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/200507_-_joint_letter_cmp_sian_berry_and_caroline_pidgeon_lfr.pdf
[2] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/01/24/met_police_face_recognition_go_ahead/
[3] https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/met-considers-pausing-the-rollout-of-facial-recognition-a4440396.html
[4] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/05/15/met_police_slammed_inaccurate_facial_recognition/
[5] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/01/24/met_police_face_recognition_go_ahead/
[6] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-facial-recognition/even-mask-wearers-can-be-idd-china-facial-recognition-firm-says-idUSKBN20W0WL
Re: Why bother?
But we live in a nice safe country where helpful bobbies on bicycles help boy scouts across the road
So we need facial recognition to confirm somebody is black (or at east Brazilian) before shooting them.
Perhaps people could be required to wear colour coded face masks (black/brown/pink triangles/yellow stars etc) to simplify the software ?
Re: Why bother?
In London they prefer Brazillian plumbers but the effect is the same.
Anti-coronavirus masks may thwart our creepy face-recog cameras, London cops admit
with our well-connected sources at Downing St, our RFID company with extensive experience in the field, going back to last week, is ready to take on this challenging task to rectify this face-mask related positive identification issue, in the name of safety, health and long-term prosperity of all UK citizens!
Re: Anti-coronavirus masks may thwart our creepy face-recog cameras, London cops admit
So when you open your mouth to get the RFID chip inserted, they can tell you "Oh no, it goes in the other end!"
(Icon is artist'ss conception of average British citizen putting their clothes back on after getting their chip inserted.)
Lookie likey
This co-incides with a thought I had yesterday about a business selling facemasks that had a picture of a celebrity from the top of the nose down printed on it. If you had a similar hairstyle, or wore sunglasses and a cap then at first glance you would appear like the celebrity of your choice to passersby as they passed you at 2 meters whilst exercising. A few hundred Ariana Grande's and David Beckhams walking round town during the day would really screw up their database.
That icon cos it looks like a facemask. Hmm I might just print one out!
Re: Lookie likey
A face mask of a white celebrity is useful if you are melanin-challenged and fancy going jogging
Re: Lookie likey
You're way behind.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/evercoverhelmetcover
Of course selling a celeb image in the USA is likely to get you sued...even if it slightly resembles them
I predicted this a few weeks ago that face masks may make current facial recognition tech a dead duck. And i predict it will be a lot longer than a few months that people will be wearing face masks, it might become the normal as it has become common to see people in them in several Asian cities since they had their SARS and then MERS out breaks.
As even if a effective COVID vaccine is created in the next 12 months its not necessarily going to rid the world of corona virus just as the measles vaccine hasn't yet eradicated that disease.
For many years it's been popular to wear masks in parts of Asia. So this has already been thought about. I can only find recent references but I'm sure I saw something about facial recognition with masks being possible several months back. Here's a recent story: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-facial-recognition-idUSKBN20W0WL
And in other news...
Facemask makers are gearing up to start making masks with BoJo's face on the front.
All the more BoJo's to confuse the Plod!
What can be wrong wtih that...?
Re: And in other news...
In a well run world looking like Johnson would be grounds for being stopped by the police. Unintended consequences and all that.
Chinese technology ...
... won't work. All you Caucasians look alike.
Re: Chinese technology ...
You joke, but it is a well established fact, no matter what race you come from.
If you grow up in a very single race environment, it is much harder to tell differences between individuals of a different race.
Exposure however reduces this
So the technology is imperfect?
Facial recognition technology isn't perfect because faces aren't a good way of identifying people. In the US it has long been the practice to have identification pictures of people include an ear lobe -- faces can fool but apparently ears are unique. Since its already been shown that its possible to track people using characteristics like their gait its only a matter of time before a person can be recognized from their entire appearance, with or without a mask.
The prize - ANPR for humans - is just too tempting to ignore so don't figure on it being given up on any time soon (they'd chip us like pets if they thoiught they could get away with it). Expect every countermeasure to be met with new techniques which willl require new countermeasures.
"Thank you, coronavirus"
"Look; you're wearing face masks, you all look the same, the facial recognition doesn't work, so there's no privacy problem at all if we roll it out at scale, right?"
Shit. I've just realised the voice in my head doing inner monologues sounds like Priti Patel.
Why bother?
London Police, why bother?
The various police forces in the U.S. don't.
They just find the first non-White person and shoot him.
It is cheaper than getting it wrong with facial recognition and, if you follow the U.S. model, there isn't any accountability either.