Technology

In general, the federal government is hungry for facial recognition. The Department of Homeland Security is experimenting with using facial biometrics to monitor migrant children “down to the infant” and algorithmically predict how they will age so they can be identified if they cross the border years later.

Seems a bit unnecessary.

I really began to understand MLK Jr's line "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" in the past few years. For every injustice allowed (in fact, oftentimes rooted for) we are saying that it will actually be OK to do that elsewhere. Eventually the justification will be OK.

In the USA we said surveillance was OK. Just use it to profile "terrorists" in the so-called war on terror. Use it to profile everyone who appears at the border. Use it to profile every Palestinian in Gaza. Use it to only profile gang members and "criminals." Use it to clandestinely surveil every phone call. Finally, stop pretending: use it to surveil everybody.

How many databases is my face in just because I flew back home from out of the country a few months ago?

Under the Biden administration, ICE records show the agency deployed Clearview widely, even as officials there charged with monitoring the technology were in the dark about how it was being used and by whom.

This is the direct path from neoliberalism/conservatism to fascism that some of us have been warning about for decades.

Sure, the D's are better than the lowest bar known to man — mentally ill fascists and con artists — but fascism may have never succeeded without their own corruption, authoritarianism, and fealty to the plutocracy. They've spent decades building the most pervasive surveillance apparatus in history, collecting data from most computers on the planet, about most of the human population, and are doing nothing as the keys to the kingdom are handed to the Nazis.

There are a bunch of conservatives that want a police state. Is this a surprise?

I posted about this exact thing over and over late last year. Always to tepid response from all but a few others that understand that in the US, privacy is a relic of the old world.

Glad at least Mother Jones got the memo.

There's nothing you can tell me about surveillance tech that would "shock" me at this point.

By the end of Trump’s first presidential term, Clearview had secured funding from right-wing billionaire Peter Thiel, one of Elon Musk’s earliest business partners, and signed up hundreds of law enforcement clients around the country. The company doled out free trials to hook users, urging cops to “run wild” with searches. They did. Many departments then bought licenses to access Clearview’s faceprint database.

The loud are the distraction.

Hmmm.

Facial recognition technology is known to be unreliable, and incorrectly match faces. But that's only a problem if it can detect a face. So your medical facemask is a problem.

But the real problem is the eyes and nose. Ears are easy enough to cover.

New style of sunglasses. Ear to ear 3.5" reflective darkened UV protection polycarbonate. That's a big ass chunk of face it can't detect anymore.

Wow, this was the centerpiece of all my studies on the alt right over the last decade and I never even knew. Mother Jones; never change.

Remember, when you aim to misbehave, black bloc is your friend.

shocking

What is it actually fair and restrained or something? That's about the only thing that would actually be shocking at this point. I wouldn't be surprised to find out they were actually electrocuting people.