this post was submitted on 22 Apr 2026
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[–] msage@programming.dev 4 points 1 hour ago

Always has been.

Cameras are THE tools for surveilance, and adding more everywhere has always had only one goal.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

how convenient, the android zuckeborg has just deployed these glasses for those purposes.

[–] Almacca@aussie.zone 7 points 5 hours ago

Time to get your Insane Clown Posse makeup working.

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 44 points 8 hours ago
[–] BillCheddar@lemmy.world 8 points 6 hours ago

Everyone should be wearing a Luigi mask anyway.

Like in V for Vendetta, but Saint Luigi instead.

[–] michaelmrose@lemmy.world 9 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Notably the risks aren't simply that this will identify the undocumented its that it will provide a pretext to disappear almost anyone who isn't white.

The question is does any given non-white person look enough like one of over 10M people to get falsely flagged given agents a pretext to remove almost anyone they stop. Facial recognition of one person against a large enough database will almost always provide at least on possible match this is especially true if it matches against possible aliens and not against possibly aliens and citizens. EG a query of both will likely turn up Betty Sue Smith is herself and maybe a possible match with Known Deportable but a search against only aliens may return only Known Deportable with agents dismissing any claim by Betty that her ID must be fake.

[–] Almacca@aussie.zone 4 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

it will provide a pretext to disappear almost anyone who isn't white.

Pretty sure you don't need a.i. glasses to figure out what colour someone is.

[–] Canigou@jlai.lu 4 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

No but you can say "The AI told me to detain them" and not take any responsibility. "I was just answering orders" is sadly too common of an excuse in doing the worst possible things...

[–] Almacca@aussie.zone 1 points 1 hour ago

And if anyone believes that absolves them of responsibility, they deserve all the police stating they get.

[–] mech@feddit.org 29 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

It'll use AI and even if you have your passport and birth certificate on you, proving they're wrong, you'll be in El Salvador before you can plead your case.

i think that's already the case

[–] grimpy@lemmy.myserv.one 4 points 7 hours ago (2 children)
[–] trackball_fetish@lemmy.wtf 1 points 3 hours ago

Disagree. What's further than hell?

[–] wabafee@lemmy.world 3 points 5 hours ago

Nah they are going to El Salvador.

[–] undrwater@lemmy.world 64 points 12 hours ago (5 children)

Will they care / understand about false positives?

Not likely.

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 37 points 11 hours ago

Feature, not bug.

[–] crandlecan@mander.xyz 16 points 12 hours ago (4 children)

As long as they kill p. of c., it'll be deemed legal 🫡🤢

[–] empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 11 hours ago

Their "facial recognition" ends up just being a binary switch on a light detector

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[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Remember 20 years ago when Wikileaks was telling us about all the false positives swept up in the War on Terror dragnet?

Both Bush and Obama got reelected. No one at the federal level gives a shit.

[–] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 1 points 9 hours ago

Imagine they would at the very least have some sort of double check procedure like a skin color chart they could reference if there was any question.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 31 points 11 hours ago (3 children)

Targets for what???? Being brown? They need AI to confirm their racism? Was the old peter griffin white/not white chart not doing it for them anymore???

[–] IratePirate@feddit.org 2 points 3 hours ago

They need AI to confirm their racism?

Not confirm, but justify. "Hey, it's not me - it's this little machine that says you're subhuman. I'm just doing my job here, man."

[–] Shady_Shiroe@lemmy.world 6 points 7 hours ago

You can't be called a racist if a machine decides it for you, same as if a drone does the killing, it mean you can't get convicted for murder even if you hit button to fire

/s

[–] BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world 3 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

I'm sure that's what it will be: proprietary and questionable algorithms to identify anyone that might not be a 3+ generation American of European origin.

[–] Mirshe@lemmy.world 6 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

And to shove justification off to a black box. Awful hard to put an algorithm on trial.

[–] SaneMartigan@lemmy.world 4 points 6 hours ago

They're gonna fall back on the algo being racist and not the storm troopers with the nazi tattoos, those guys are just doing what the AI tells them.

[–] Mongostein@lemmy.ca 13 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

Time to carry portable EMPs

… uhhh how do I make one?

[–] MML@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 hours ago

Get a disposable camera, it won't be large enough to do much but it's a fun little project and you can learn the concept

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 5 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (3 children)

You don't need a portable EMP.

All you need is basic KN95 mask and a hoodie. Or you can invest in sunglasses or ID-blocking eyeglasses, like IDGuard from Zenni. The point is to have your features covered as much as is feasible. When I go to a protest I wear a costume that covers my whole head and a jumpsuit.

You should have a KN95 on anyway if you're going out among people.

[–] Mongostein@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 hours ago

Sure, but that won’t knock it out for people who don’t have their own mask

[–] EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 6 points 8 hours ago (3 children)

You should know facial recognition software is optimized to defeat KN95 masks specifically

[–] NekoKoneko@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Do you have a reliable link to show this? I'm asking not to challenge or sealion, but because I'd like to know the limits of what you're referring to for my own safety and privacy.

[–] EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago (1 children)
[–] NekoKoneko@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Thanks. I think that's enough to see where you're going. It's on me to find better evidence, so I looked and it looks like a 2020 NIST report suggests masks increase the failure rate in 89 tested algorithms from 0.3% to 5-50%.

https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2020/07/nist-launches-studies-masks-effect-face-recognition-software

That failure rate is enough to give plausible deniability and reasonable doubt in a court, I'd wager. But I'm sure ICE sees a higher failure rate a feature since it likely gives them more pretexts to arrest. At least we know the technology isn't reliable enough to support it.

[–] EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

I mean court’s not really a factor. The surveillance tech is only to help identify targets. One they nab you that’s it. The Supreme Court already ruled that it’s ok for them to target people based only on race. The confidence level of the tech against your covered face is sorta irrelevant in this scenario.

[–] michaelmrose@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

What do you think what you posted even means? covering most of what it is using to identify is already going to make it drastically more difficult to match

[–] EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Not really. It’s trivial to match your face. If you use an iPhone with FaceID it won’t miss a beat. You have to cover your full face, head, and eyes.

The problem with this is that the idea of “KN95 and a hoodie” is that you’d still reasonably blend in. By the time you reach the point t of covering every identified part of your head, you’d also stick out like a sore thumb which doesn’t help you when the camera surveilling you is attached to the face of an ICE agent looking specifically in your direction.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Then wear a cloth one with a pattern on it.

This isn't difficult.

[–] EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 4 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

That won’t work either and it’s very difficult as a matter of fact.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 5 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

Agreed that there's no perfect solution.

But one can, and should, make it harder, and if your head, eyes, and face are covered (which is exceedingly easy and inexpensive to do with a ball cap, sunglasses, and a face mask) it's going to beat all but the best systems.

[–] root@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago

The IR blocking glasses won't help with normal CV though, right? If you wear those glasses and try to unlock your iPhone, it won't work because the IR array can't read the facial features behind the glasses, but if you take a photo of yourself with said iPhone, they will appear as normal glasses

[–] Pavidus@lemmy.world 6 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

Not a problem, really. They wear masks? So do I.

[–] JordanZ@lemmy.world 6 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

Which is why they’re making masks illegal in a bunch of places. So bring on the juggalo face paint!

[–] Pavidus@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago

A very valid suggestion!

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Exactly.

Beating facial recognition is simple.

[–] Aaron@lemmy.nz 2 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I'm no expert, but I was under the impression that their tools use not only facial recognition that can (with a non-perfect record) identify people wearing nose and below masks, but also identifies based on cell phone and geographic data. So if someone plans on relying on beating facial recognition, they'll need to also beat the other tools in use by wearing a full mask, not carry a cell phone, etc.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago

That's also fairly simple.

Leave the phone at home (the best way to go) or put it in a faraday bag, but yes, there's a plethora of things you need to do to be completely anonymous.

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