Quote: (10-24-2016 12:52 AM)Leonard D Neubache Wrote:
I suspect a lot of this stuff is psyops. We keep hearing about this "all seeing all knowing state information apparatus" yet they often have trouble tracking down the most common of criminals, even when they commit major crimes.
They want to paint the idea that they can feed your picture into the database and then as soon as you walk by a security camera then you'll be pinged. Logistically it reeks of bullshit to me, but the idea of it serves a very useful purpose.
In any case they only trot this out for hardcore enemies of the state, which is to say the enemies of the government. You and me? They don't give a shit what happens to us, and they don't want to spook the herd by convicting shoplifters and spraypainters using the fruits of a trillion dollar snooping apparatus. Raise the temperature in the pot too quickly and the frogs will start jumping out.
I think you're making a good point. There are definitely some sociological impacts to convincing everyone that they're being watched and tracked.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticism
As for facial recognition itself, the technology obviously exists, and it's good. You can already unlock your phone or auto-tag your photo library with facial recognition.
The greater problem is that using this stuff in civilian law enforcement requires certain judicial considerations, because there is a larger debate on the constitutionality of mass surveillance.
If a government keeps its surveillance activity quiet and doesn't bring cases against anyone using mass facial recognition as evidence, then nobody can construct an appeal that says the data are inadmissible in court. That way, the government never has to risk an appellate court deciding that a mass surveillance system based on facial recognition is unconstitutional.
The decision in Katz v. United States (
https://www.oyez.org/cases/1967/35) upheld the idea that the 4th amendment protects a person's "reasonable expectation of privacy." US v. Jones (
https://www.oyez.org/cases/2011/10-1259) found that extended GPS tracking of a vehicle does qualify as a search. Even if a vehicle spends the entire duration of warrantless GPS tracking within plain sight of public roads, i.e. a cop could have observed its location at any given time, a warrant would still be necessary.
So, mass unwarranted facial recognition surveillance would probably be ruled as totally unconstitutional under current jurisprudence.