By MassPrivateI

Sometimes I have trouble coming up with a title for one of my articles, but this one came easy because the two companies involved in this article helped create it.

A New York-based company called Vuzix along with a UAE software company called NNTC worked together to produce the world’s first automatic facial recognition sunglasses for law enforcement.

Not only did they create the world’s first automatic facial recognition sunglasses but they purposely made them to resemble Oakley sunglasses. Which makes it harder for people to tell if they are being spied on.



The above video warns that police will have access to a database of at least one million faces.

According to NNTC, they created the iFalcon Face Control Mobile sunglasses specifically for law enforcement.

The bodycam or smart glasses screen the crowd to match faces against a database of violators, missing people or suspects. Once there is a match, the solution retrieves relevant information from the database and instantly sends an alert via AR smart glasses. (Click here to see iFalcon’s infographic)

How will police really use iFalcon sunglasses you ask? To watchlist or white list people of course.

The iFalcon Face Control Mobile brings face recognition capabilities anywhere, even without the network of CCTV cameras covering every inch of the city. It proves particularly effective in:

• Detects people at public events, sports facilities and in other crowded areas: violators, ‘watchlisted’ individuals and missing people


• Public surveillance in transportation stations, airports, subway and other transport facilities


• Monitoring immigrants and identification of violators and imposters at border customs control


• Verification of identity according to ‘white list’


• Preventing terrorism, espionage and unauthorized access to sensitive areas

Back to how I created my title; a company purposefully creates spying sunglasses to help law enforcement watchlist individuals. It does not get anymore disturbing than that or does it?

CEO explains U.S. military connections to iFalcon glasses



If you can get through the crappy music and Erica Blackwell fawning over CEO Paul Travers, the first two minutes of the above video spells out his connections to the U.S. military and how he purposely designed their new iFalcon Face Control sunglasses to be indistinguishable from Oakley sunglasses.

A recent Vuzix press release also does a great job of explaining how police will use their new iFalcon Face Control sunglasses.

Vuzix Blade Smart Glasses, which are nearly indistinguishable from everyday sunglasses, utilize the built-in camera on the glasses to detect faces and then transmits the information to a wearable portable computer over a wireless channel. The portable computer processes face images and compares them with faces from the database stored locally to find the match. Once there is a match, the solution retrieves relevant information from the database and instantly sends an alert to the wearer via the Vuzix Blade AR Smart Glasses.

A pro-industry website called DealerScope claims that iFalcon sunglasses could also be used by the public to identify someone whose name you forgot.

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Imagine a day where you’d never have to experience one of those awkward encounters where you bump into someone who clearly remembers who you are, calls you out by name, and yet, there you stand, unable to connect a name with the face you’re staring at.

Using facial recognition to identify old acquaintances, really? Sorry, DealerScope we are not buying it.

Time after time we see companies with suspect ties to the military and law enforcement try and push facial recognition onto an unsuspecting public but this is not one of those times.

Giving law enforcement facial recognition sunglasses with the ability to watchlist or white list people in real-time must be stopped before we find ourselves living in mirror-image of China.

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By Derrick Broze

In the last ten years, our world has been completely transformed thanks to the exponential growth of digital technology. Technological advances with computer processors and the Internet have quickly advanced our world into one that resembles some of the most well-known sci-fi films and novels. Not a single day passes without a report on an emerging technology or new feature in an already existing product. The last ten years alone have seen rapid growth in information technology, encryption, the medical industry and 3D printing technology, just to name a few.

Unfortunately, as technology is a tool, there are equally frightening developments taking place in the first two decades of the 21st century. Specifically, the ability for governments and private actors to monitor and spy on the activity of the average person has nearly become accepted as the norm. In fact, it has become commonplace to hear Americans respond to warnings of Orwellian futures with the timeless trope, “If you’re not doing anything wrong, there’s nothing to hide!” This is what makes it all the more surprising to see a surplus of recent reports examining the dangers and implications of a world where facial recognition technology is commonplace.

Here’s a small sample of the current headlines related to facial recognition:

• Most Americans Trust Facial Recognition Technology – But Not At The Airport


• Terrifying AI Matches DNA to Facial Recognition Databases


• Why Is Facial Recognition Important? 3 Signs It’s Too Big to Ignore Any Longer


• Facial recognition smart glasses could make public surveillance discreet and ubiquitous

Even the Washington Post published a warning titled “Don’t smile for surveillance: Why airport face scans are a privacy trap.”

Questions surrounding the emerging technology have reached enough of a tipping point that just this week, House Democrats questioned the Department of Homeland Security over the use of facial recognition tech on U.S. citizens. The Hill reported that more than 20 House Democrats sent a letter on Friday to the DHS over the Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) use of facial recognition technology at U.S. airports. The Border Patrol claims that they are rolling out the facial recognition program at a number of airports under a congressional mandate and with an executive order from President Donald Trump. Lawmakers say the program was supposed to focus on foreign passengers, not Americans.

The group of lawmakers wrote:

We write to express concerns about reports that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is using facial recognition technology to scan American citizens under the Biometric Exit Program.

The letter to DHS comes shortly after a representative with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) the House Oversight and Reform Committee said that the FBI has access to hundreds of millions of photos that are used for facial recognition searches. Gretta Goodwin, a representative with the GAO, said the FBI uses expansive databases of photos—including from driver’s licenses, passports and mugshots—to search for potential criminals. Goodwin noted that the FBI has a database of 36 million mugshots and access to more than 600 million photos, including access to 21 state driver’s license databases.

Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio reminded Ms. Goodwin that the FBI has access to more photos than there are people in the country. “There are only 330 million people in the country,” Jordan stated.

The TSA was also questioned about their use of facial recognition at airports. Austin Gould, the TSA’s assistant administrator on Requirements and Capabilities Analysis, said the facial recognition program has been helpful for travelers. However, critics say the potential benefits of saved time and reducing passenger volume should not override the greater risk to privacy. The TSA plans to have facial recognition tech at the top 20 airports for international travelers by 2021 and at all airports by 2023. The TSA has also previously expressed their desire to scan the face of every single American who enters the airport.

The push back against facial recognition—and biometric technology in general—has moved beyond words in some areas. Most recently, San Francisco became the first city to ban government use of facial recognition. Due to the success in San Francisco, California lawmakers are considering AB 1215, a bill that would extend the ban across the entire state. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) spoke in favor of the bill, stating that the technology has been shown to have disproportionately high error rates for women, the elderly, and people of color. EFF also warned about the dangers of combining face recognition technology with police body cameras.

The editorial board of the Guardian also recently spoke out about the privacy threats, calling the technology “especially inaccurate and prone to bias.” The editorial board also noted that a recent test of Amazon’s facial recognition software by the American Civil Liberties Union found that it falsely identified 28 members of Congress as known criminal. Although the technology is currently dangerous due to its inaccuracy, the Guardian warns:

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It may be too late to stop the collection of this data. But the law must ensure that it is not stored and refined in ways that will harm the innocent and, as Liberty warns, slowly poison our public life.

It’s clear that the debate on the benefits and threats of facial recognition technology is not going anywhere anytime soon. It’s up to us as individuals to educate ourselves and inform our peers about the threats to privacy and freedom that are becoming increasingly more apparent everyday.

By Derrick Broze | Creative Commons | TheMindUnleashed.com

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By MassPrivateI

One of the NFL’s premiere franchises, the New England Patriots is using “Evolve Edge” millimeter wave/facial recognition scanners to identify fans before they enter Gillette Stadium.

According to Evolv Edge’s brochure, their scanners use facial recognition to identify everyone.

The automated, consistent screening eliminates guard fatigue and subjectivity so there’s fewer complaints and no profiling while providing better threat detection. The system can scan everyone and their bag including those with medical devices and pregnant women. In addition, facial recognition can be integrated to identify people who are prohibited from an environment.



Evolv’s scanners are designed to make it easy for private corporations and law enforcement to create blacklists of suspicious people.

Evolve Edge keeps unwanted visitors out with integrated face recognition. Evolv Edge, captures facial images of visitors, via a built-in camera, and matches them against a locally defined gallery.

Because nothing says freedom quite like being placed on a so-called “locally defined gallery” (secret blacklist).

Across the country, Evolv Edge’s millimeter waves are secretly scanning Americans without their knowledge.

The Evolv Edge is in wide use for for visitor, employee and VIP screening at top entertainment venues, international airports, stadiums, corporations, hospitals, large scale events and national landmarks worldwide. (For more information about Evolv Edge and stadium security click here.)

Gillette Stadium and the TD Garden have also been using FanCam to identify every fan since 2017.

The cameras — the number of which depends on the configuration of the stadium — take multiple images at many different points in a game. Those shots are then put together to form one large composite 360-degree view of every fan in the stadium for a given game.

Gillette Stadium identifies fans before they enter the stadium

A recent Evolve Technology study, reveals how Gillette security spies on fans.

Gillette Stadium uses Evolve to whitelist and blacklist fans, calling out “valued customers” (VIPS) by name.

For example, we’ve integrated face recognition into the Edge. With this added functionality, security personnel will be able to greet trusted guests and valued customers by name, and speed them through the screening process—think TSA Precheck.

Gillette Stadium plans to use facial recognition cameras to identify fans,

By adding face recognition, we can now help address both sides of this equation. Venues will be able to maintain both “verify” lists for employees, repeat customers and important guests, as well as “detect” lists –for example, known gate-crashers or people who have been banned from the stadium.

Just how easy is it for someone to be blacklisted by Gillette Security?

According to Gillette Stadium’s “Code of Conduct” page, fans can be blacklisted for exercising their right to free speech among others things.

• Exhibiting behavior that is unruly, disruptive, irresponsible or illegal in nature


• Using foul, abusive or offensive language or making obscene gestures.


• Interfering with any ongoing event, business activity or the enjoyment of others.


• Engaging in public intoxication


• Verbally or physically harassing any of our guests or staff.


• Advertising or selling goods or services.


• Smoking or vaping. Gillette Stadium is a non-smoking facility.


• Violating the terms of any applicable admission ticket license, policy or related laws.


• Failure to follow instructions of security personnel or law enforcement.

If a fan wants to be removed from Gillette Stadium’s blacklist, they must pay $250.00 and take a “4 Hour Online Fan Code Of Conduct Class” that teaches people things like “communication skills as prevention (Foul or abusive language or obscene gesture) [and] skills for becoming less impulsive and improving judgment.”

Forcing blacklisted fans to take a “Code of Conduct” class, essentially turns stadiums into the Nanny State.

Evolv Technology’s study shows just how much the Nanny State has become synonymous with stadiums and public venues.

Evolv Technology’s CEO, Mike Ellenbogen, explains his close relationship with Gillette Stadium’s head of security, Mark Briggs, and describes how they worked together to identify fans before they even enter the stadium.

Our vision—and TeamOps —is to use advanced connected sensors along with face and image recognition to identify potential threats as soon as they arrive on property or come in sight of the venue. Should our cameras spot someone of interest, or who might be carrying a suspicious object, we can give our law enforcement partners a heads up so they can take the appropriate action before the person gets within range to do major damage. Our credo is prevent, don’t just react.

Private corporations notifying police of a suspicious or blacklisted fan before they enter a venue is extremely disturbing. Why? Because the public has no way of knowing why someone has been put on a blacklist since private corporations are exempt from FOIAs,

Unfortunately, Evolv Technology is not alone in scanning people in public places. HEXWAVE, makes its money by scanning people in malls and retail stores from Florida, to Southeast Georgia.

“Malls welcome hundreds – if not thousands – of visitors daily, including children and families. These are public spaces that face a security challenge with high volumes of foot traffic and multiple entry points,” said Bill Riker, Liberty’s CEO. “By providing a security solution that is modular, scalable, and capable of providing layered protection to identify threats before they evolve into an attack, we believe that we can make these spaces safer for patrons and merchants alike.”

In Utah, HEXWAVE plans to scan people in just about every public venue imaginable, scanning them during “non-business hours to get system exposure to the full range of potential operating conditions to include environmental, frequency/volume of use or other operating conditions to which HEXWAVE would be subjected.”

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Companies like Evolv and HEXWAVE have close ties to the U.S. military and Homeland Security.

Evolv boasts about receiving Homeland Security’s “Safety Act Designation” and has numerous DHS, CIA and FBI advisors on their Board. Liberty Defense’s CEO used to work for the U.S. Department of Defense and General Dynamics.

With so many signs pointing towards Homeland Security and the Feds, is it any wonder that we are seeing facial recognition scanners popping up in public venues?

Can anything stop the spread of public facial recognition scanners?

Mark Briggs said it best, “I’ve never been told I can’t do something that will enhance security at the stadium.” And that is the moral of this story: there are no laws stopping private corporations from turning public venues into a mirror-image of the TSA.

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You can read more at the MassPrivateI blog, where this article first appeared.

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By Michael Boldin

SOMERVILLE, Mass. (June 27, 2019) – The Somerville city council voted Thursday to ban the use of facial recognition by police investigations and city departments. Following San Francisco, it’s now the second U.S. city to outlaw the technology.

Somerville City Councilor Ben Ewen-Campen was the lead sponsor of the “Face Surveillance Full Ban Ordinance.” 9 of the 11 Somerville City Councilors sponsored the legislation, and it was approved by a 11-0 vote.

The new law refers to facial recognition as the “functional equivalent of requiring every person to carry and display a personal photo identification card at all times.” It forbids any “department, agency, bureau, and/or subordinate division of the City of Somerville” from using facial recognition software in public spaces.

In addition to a ban of active use by city departments, the ordinance outlaws use of data or evidence produced by facial recognition software systems in criminal investigations or legal proceedings.

Last month, San Francisco became the first in the nation to ban facial recognition. ACLU of Northern California called the vote historic.

“By passing this law, the city gave the community a seat at the table and acted decisively to protect its people from the growing danger of face recognition, a highly invasive technology that would have radically and massively expanded the government’s power to track and control people going about their daily lives. Supported by Bay Area voters, and a broad coalition of privacy, civil rights, and racial justice groups, this powerful measure will protect the safety and civil rights of all San Franciscans who deserve to live their lives without being targeted by dangerous high-tech surveillance. In the hands of the government, face surveillance would supercharge discriminatory policing, stifle civic engagement, and entangle people with ICE.”

The Tenth Amendment Center joined with a broad coalition of organizations including ACLU of Northern California, Color of Change, Council on American-Islamic Relations San Francisco Bay Area, The Greenlining Institute, Freedom of the Press Foundation, Media Alliance and Oakland Privacy in supporting the ordinance.

A similar measure will get a vote by the Berkeley City Council on July 9th and the Oakland City Council on July 16th.

The California State Legislature is also considering a facial recognition ban on police body cams. A bill introduced in the Michigan State Senate would ban all government use of facial recognition.

Practical Effect

Local police have access to a mind-boggling array of surveillance equipment. As it now stands, many law enforcement agencies can obtain this high-tech, extremely intrusive technology without any approval or oversight. Police often operate highly intrusive surveillance technology in complete secrecy.

The federal government facilitates local surveillance through grants and other funding sources for this spy-gear, meaning local governments can keep their purchase “off the books.” Members of the community, and even elected officials, often don’t know their police departments possess technology capable of sweeping up electronic data, phone calls and location information.

In some cases, the feds even require law enforcement agencies to sign non-disclosure agreements, wrapping surveillance programs in an even darker shroud of secrecy. We know for a fact the FBI required the Baltimore Police Department to sign such an agreement when it obtained stingray technology. This policy of nondisclosure even extends to the courtroom, with the feds actually instructing prosecutors to withdraw evidence if judges or legislators press for information. As the Baltimore Sun reported, a Baltimore detective refused to answer questions about the department’s use of stingray devices on the stand during a trial, citing a federal nondisclosure agreement.

As privacysos.org put it, “The FBI would rather police officers and prosecutors let ‘criminals’ go than face a possible scenario where a defendant brings a Fourth Amendment challenge to warrantless stingray spying.”

Ordinances like the one introduced in San Francisco create a framework of oversight and transparency for surveillance programs. They also set the stage to limit surveillance by giving residents input into the process and allowing them to oppose and stop the purchase of spy-gear.

Impact on Federal Surveillance

Passage of local ordinances not only protects the privacy of people in that area. They also undermine the federal surveillance state. The federal government funds much of the surveillance technology acquired by state and local law enforcement. In return, federal agencies tap into the data swept up by these agencies through information sharing agreements and fusion centers. Information gathered by your local police department often ends up permanently stored in federal databases. These create the backbone of the federal surveillance state.

The feds can share and tap into vast amounts of information gathered at the state and local level through fusion centers and a system known as the “information sharing environment” or ISE. In other words, stingrays create the potential for the federal government to track the movement of millions of Americans with no warrant, no probable cause, and without the people even knowing it.

Fusion centers were sold as a tool to combat terrorism, but that is not how they are being used. The ACLU pointed to a bipartisan congressional report to demonstrate the true nature of government fusion centers: “They haven’t contributed anything meaningful to counterterrorism efforts. Instead, they have largely served as police surveillance and information sharing nodes for law enforcement efforts targeting the frequent subjects of police attention: Black and brown people, immigrants, dissidents, and the poor.”

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Fusion centers operate within the broader ISE. According to its website, the ISE “provides analysts, operators, and investigators with information needed to enhance national security. These analysts, operators, and investigators…have mission needs to collaborate and share information with each other and with private sector partners and our foreign allies.” In other words, ISE serves as a conduit for the sharing of information gathered without a warrant. Known ISE partners include the Office of Director of National Intelligence which oversees 17 federal agencies and organizations, including the NSA. ISE utilizes these partnerships to collect and share data on the millions of unwitting people they track.

By facilitating local surveillance, the federal government undoubtedly gains access to a massive data pool on Americans without having to expend the resources to collect the information itself. By requiring approval and placing the acquisition of spy gear in the public spotlight, local governments can take the first step toward limiting the surveillance state at both the local and national level.

In a nutshell, without state and local cooperation, the feds have a much more difficult time gathering information. This represents a major blow to the surveillance state and a win for privacy.

Passage of an ordinance in one locality may not seem significant. But when multiplied over hundreds of cities and counties across the United States, this strategy could seriously undermine federal surveillance programs. If local police can’t collect and share the data, it cannot end up in federal databases.

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Michael Boldin [send him email] is the founder of the Tenth Amendment Center., where this article first appeared. He was raised in Milwaukee, WI, and currently resides in Los Angeles, CA. Follow him on Twitter – @michaelboldin and Facebook.

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By Michael Boldin

With government and corporate partners aggressively pushing for facial recognition everywhere – airports, public places, police body cams and more – left and right are starting to come together to ban government from using it for surveillance (or anything else) on a state and local level.

Will enough people take action before it’s too late?

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Second in the Nation: Somerville City Council Passes Facial Recognition Ban

First in the Nation: San Francisco Passes Ordinance to Ban Facial Recognition

Oakland, Calif., Nearing Ban on Facial Recognition Tech

America’s Biggest Police Body-Cam Manufacturer Bans Face Recognition Surveillance—for Now

California Committee Approves Bill to Ban Facial Recognition on Police Body Cameras

Detroit police commissioners postpone vote on facial recognition technology policy

Michigan Bill Would Place Total Ban on Police Use of Facial Recognition Technology

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Michael Boldin [send him email] is the founder of the Tenth Amendment Center, where this video first appeared. He was raised in Milwaukee, WI, and currently resides in Los Angeles, CA. Follow him on twitter – @michaelboldin and Facebook.

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By Press For Truth

Back off big brother, San Francisco and Somerville say no thanks to facial recognition tech!

At a time when big brother is intruding into all aspects of our lives it’s refreshing to see the cities of San Francisco and Somerville taking the initiative to ban governmental uses of facial recognition technology.

The “Face Surveillance Full Ban Ordinance” forbids any “department, agency, bureau, and/or subordinate division of the City of Somerville” from using facial recognition software in public spaces.

In this video, Dan Dicks of Press For Truth explains why this is an important move that should be supported for the protection of our privacy moving forward.



Sources:

https://www.wired.com/story/san-franc…

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/pa…

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wj…

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolog…

https://www.theguardian.com/world/201… https://pressfortruth.ca/top-stories/…

Move Over Facial Recognition Tech, They’re Now DATA-MINING Directly From Our BRAINS!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpD4g…

https://bgr.com/2019/07/02/wireless-h…

https://steemit.com/dtube/@pressfortr…

https://steemit.com/news/@pressfortru…

The iPhone X Exposed – Biometric Identification Is Just The Beginning… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Kv4U…

AI, FACIAL RECOGNITION And GOVERNMENT Merge Into Unholy Trinity of SURVEILLANCE! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE_Ik…

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By Matthew Guariglia

After a long dormant stretch, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) has signaled it’s ready to tackle another big review of government surveillance and overreach. The PCLOB, an independent agency in the executive branch, last published a 2014 report on warrantless surveillance of the Internet by the U.S. intelligence community. While EFF welcomes the PCLOB’s efforts to bring oversight and transparency to the most controversial surveillance programs, we’ve disagreed with some of the Board’s findings, particularly on surveillance under FISA Section 702. So while it’s a good sign that the board is turning its attention to other major issues, its mixed history means it may be a little too soon to get your hopes up.

This week, the board, which was created after a recommendation from the 9/11 Commission to look into the violation of civil liberties, released a strategic plan [PDF] that does not shy away from investigating some of the biggest threats to privacy in the U.S. According to the document, they will be looking into the NSA’s collection of phone records, facial recognition and other biometric technologies being used in airport security, the processes that govern terrorist watchlist, what they call “deep dive” investigations into NSA’s XKEYSCORE tool and the CIA’s counterterrorism activity, as well as many other government programs and procedures.

It’s hard to say what the possible results of these inquiries can or will be. The PCLOB has the right to look into classified materials, as well as request written subpoenas from the Attorney General. In the past, however, PCLOB has been incredibly measured in their critique of mass surveillance programs. Their 2014 report, for instance, found that the Section 702 program is sound “at its core,” and provides “considerable value” in the fight against terrorism—despite going on to make ten massive recommendations for what the program must do to avoid infringing on people’s privacy. In other words, while finding serious privacy concerns with a program that vacuums up an untold number of Americans’ phone data, it still approved of its existence.

At the very least, we should expect detailed reports out of these investigations that detail exactly how and why our privacy is being trampled. Despite the fact that any reports likely wouldn’t be out for over a year, these reports could become valuable evidence as Congress considers future legislation, especially provisions like Section 702 that regularly come up for amendment and reauthorization.

Dr. Guariglia is a policy analyst working on issues of surveillance and privacy at the local, state, and federal level. He received a PhD in history at the University of Connecticut where his research focused on the intersection of race, immigration, U.S. imperialism, and policing in New York City. He is a frequent contributor to the Freedom of Information-centered outlet Muckrock and his bylines have also appeared in the Washington Post and Motherboard. Matthew will be a visiting scholar in the department of history at UC Berkeley and serves as an editor of “Disciplining the City,” a series on the history of urban policing and incarceration at the Urban History Association’s blog The Metropole. (Photo by Zack Garlitos)

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This article was sourced from EFF.org

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By MassPrivateI

What is wrong with the picture below? A lot.

The picture shows just how complicit the mass media has become in convincing Generation Z (Gen Z) adults into accepting TSA-style checkpoints at public venues.

USA Today’s caption says it all,

Annabel Hess, right, signed up for PreCheck at an RV outside the gates of the Country LakeShake music festival in Chicago in late June at the urging of her roommate Catie Hjerpe, left.

USA Today’s reporter Dawn Gilberston, offers a disturbing glimpse into the mass media’s collusion with TSA-style checkpoints at public venues.

The story describes how happy a young woman is to join IdentoGo’s TSA PreCheck just so she can avoid check-in lines at music festivals.

Her roommate has had PreCheck since college and saw the festival’s pitch about enrolling on-site and getting a fast pass through festival security as a bonus.

Below are some examples of how hard the mass media is working to convince Gen Z adults to give up their privacy.

Mass media claims giving away your privacy is fun

This disturbing video from WBCD News 2 is yet another example of how the mass media laughs about losing one’s privacy so they can avoid check-in lines; referring to PreCheck enrollees as “lucky ducks” twice.

Earlier this year, IdentoGo offered PreCheck enrollees a chance to win gift cards and a free facial biomteric enrollment to a few lucky ducks in Burbank, California.

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IdentoGO by Idemia, the leading provider of identity services, will host an Open House celebration at its new Burbank location (2436 W Victory Blvd.) on Wednesday, March 6 from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Those who visit the center during this time can enter to win a prize giveaway that includes a $400 Southwest Airlines credit, a $400 Hotels.com gift card and a free TSA Pre✓® enrollment worth $85.

There is nothing fun about giving up your identity to gain entrance to music festivals, sporting events, and other public venues.

IdentoGo has come a long way since last year’s propaganda bus tours at MLB, NFL and NHL stadiums and their partnership with Staples.

IdentoGo has repainted their RVs, to make them more appealing to Gen Z adults by putting pictures of smiling young women on them in a blatant attempt to gain wider acceptance.

USA Today warns that the TSA and IdentoGo want to put TSA checkpoints in public venues across the country.

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PreCheck sign-ups began at festivals a few years ago in a partnership with concert promoter LiveNation and have been ramped up this year, with LiveNation and at other events, he said. The RV was parked at the BottleRock Napa Valley musical festival in northern California in late May and spent the first weekend in June at CMA Fest in Nashville, Tennessee.

TSA-style checkpoints at music festivals? What is next? Fairs, malls and movie theaters?

Accepting TSA-style checkpoints in public venues gives Big Brother unprecedented access to our private lives.

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You can read more at the MassPrivateI blog, where this article first appeared.

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By Jake Johnson

A trove of public records obtained by privacy experts at Georgetown Law revealed that ICE and the FBI have used facial recognition technology to mine state driver’s license databases for information on millions of Americans without consent, a practice critics condemned as a “disturbing” breach of civil liberties.

According to the Washington Post, which first reported on the documents late Sunday, “Thousands of facial-recognition requests, internal documents, and emails over the past five years… reveal that federal investigators have turned state departments of motor vehicles databases into the bedrock of an unprecedented surveillance infrastructure.”

“Police have long had access to fingerprints, DNA, and other ‘biometric data’ taken from criminal suspects,” the Post reported. “But the DMV records contain the photos of a vast majority of a state’s residents, most of whom have never been charged with a crime.”

Privacy advocates and immigrant rights groups reacted with alarm to the documents, the release of which comes as members of Congress are increasingly raising concerns about the threat facial recognition technology poses to civil liberties.

“Besides targeting undocumented folks, ICE is running facial recognition searches against millions of photos. You. Your family. Your friends,” tweeted the non-profit Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES). “This is a major violation of privacy.”

Besides targeting undocumented folks, ICE is running facial recognition searches against MILLIONS of photos. You. Your family. Your friends. This is a MAJOR violation of privacy.

Let’s not continue to make our reality an episode of Black Mirror…https://t.co/vKFvZlinYd

— RAICES (@RAICESTEXAS) July 8, 2019

As the Post reported, the FBI and ICE have carried out facial recognition searches in three states that allow undocumented immigrants to obtain full driver’s licenses—Utah, Vermont, and Washington.

According to the Post:

More than a dozen states, including New York, as well as the District of Columbia, allow undocumented immigrants to drive legally with full licenses or driving privilege cards. Lawmakers in Florida, Texas, and other states have introduced bills this year that would extend driving privileges to undocumented immigrants. Some of those states already allow the FBI to scan driver’s license photos, while others, such as Florida and New York, are negotiating with the FBI over access.

“This is a scandal,” Harrison Rudolph, an associate at Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy and Technology, told the New York Times. “States have never passed laws authorizing ICE to dive into driver’s license databases using facial recognition to look for folks. These states have never told undocumented people that when they apply for a driver’s license they are also turning over their face to ICE. That is a huge bait and switch.”

Digital rights group Fight for the Future called for an immediate end to the use of “face recognition to hunt down immigrants.”

Public records uncovered by @GeorgetownCPT show that ICE has used face recognition to hunt down immigrants in Vermont, Washington and Utah. This outrage should end immediately. #facesurveillance https://t.co/ShMLmpijPg

— Fight for the Future (@fightfortheftr) July 8, 2019

Congress has not approved the FBI and ICE’s mining of driver’s license databases. Jake Laperruque, senior counsel at the watchdog group Project on Government Oversight, told the Post that it is “really a surveillance-first, ask-permission-later system.”

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“People think this is something coming way off in the future, but these [facial-recognition] searches are happening very frequently today,” Laperruque said. “The FBI alone does 4,000 searches every month, and a lot of them go through state DMVs.”

As Common Dreams reported in June, the House Oversight Committee has held two hearings on facial recognition amid growing concerns about potential abuse of the technology by law enforcement officials and giant corporations.

Following a hearing in May, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) connected the “global rise in authoritarianism and fascism” to worries about the privacy threats posed by facial recognition software, which is being used at major airports across the United States and the world.

“I don’t want to see an authoritarian surveillance state,” Ocasio-Cortez told reporters, “whether it’s run by a government or whether it’s run by five corporations.”

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By Jake Johnson | CommonDreams.org

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By MassPrivateI

I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so. Local governments and private corporations are using facial recognition to secretly blacklist people, despite having no valid reason to do so.

A recent article in the Idaho Statesman, and in the video below, proves that local governments are using facial recognition to ban residents from accessing city-owned buildings.

The Boise city council claimed that they need facial recognition cameras to protect public employees from disgruntled or unwelcome residents.



Wow, there must be a lot of disgruntled or unhappy residents for the city council to justify putting facial recognition cameras in Boise City Hall and City Hall West, right?

Would you believe both city halls have banned just one single resident because he opposed using city funds to pay for an NBA developmental league team.

His ban apparently did not last very long, because Mike Journee, a spokesman for Mayor David Bieter, said, “no one is currently banned from City Hall.”

So if no one is currently banned from City Hall why install facial recognition cameras? Could the government use facial recognition to quell dissent? How many people will refuse to complain or speak out because law enforcement could use it to identify them?

The Statesman revealed that “the technology would be used to identify people who are banned from City Hall for any reason.”

Journee also admitted that there is no “specific instance” that could justify installing facial recognition cameras on city property. So if there is no “specific instance” or reason to use facial recognition to identify unwelcome people, why use it?

To create secret blacklists and quell dissent of course.

The government already uses facial recognition to create a secret “No-Fly List” (blacklist) of citizens and now watchlists and blacklists are creeping into public transit. Private corporations, bars and nightclubs are also using facial recognition to identify and blacklist customers and sports fans.

Everyone should take notice when the mass-media admits what I have been saying for years: facial recognition is being used to blacklist people for any reason.

It is time to face facts, the feds and law enforcement are secretly using facial recognition to track and identify anyone of interest.

Law enforcement’s unfettered access to facial recognition and drivers licenses is a privacy nightmare.

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Miami state Rep. Michael Grieco told the Orlando Sentinel, “I feel like we’re taking a step backwards; it’s like the wild west with privacy.”

Alvaro Bedoya, the founding director of Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy & Technology told NPR,

In Washington, Utah and Vermont — ICE agents are actually taking advantage of that (facial recognition) to secretly find and deport those people using face recognition technology.

Not only is law enforcement secretly using facial recognition to identify people but they are using it to deport immigrants or undesirables. What more proof do we need that facial recognition is not a public safety issue, it is a public watchlist and blacklist issue.

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You can read more at the MassPrivateI blog, where this article first appeared.

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By Julia Conley

“Imagine if we could go back in time and prevent governments around the world from ever building nuclear or biological weapons. That’s the moment in history we’re in right now with facial recognition.”

Pushing back against businesses and government calling for mere “regulations” on facial recognition surveillance, digital rights group Fight for the Future on Tuesday launched a nationwide campaign to demand a complete ban on the technology, which which critics warn is already violating civil liberties across the country.

Facial recognition technology exacerbates racial discrimination by police departments, violates privacy rights, and makes the personal data of millions of people vulnerable to security breaches, the non-profit group said.

Some technology poses such a threat to human society and basic liberty that it outweighs any potential benefits.

We’re calling for a Federal ban on government use of #facialrecognition surveillance. https://t.co/lXUm7DnWco #BanFacialRecognition

— Fight for the Future (@fightfortheftr) July 9, 2019

“Facial recognition is unlike any other form of surveillance,” Fight for the Future wrote on the website it set up to launch the campaign, BanFacialRecognition.com. “It enables automated and ubiquitous monitoring of an entire population, and it is nearly impossible to avoid. If we don’t stop it from spreading, it will be used not to keep us safe, but to control and oppress us—just as it is already being used in authoritarian states.”

The United Nations has expressed concerns about the use of facial recognition technology in Argentina and China, warning that the countries are not doing enough to ensure that people’s right to privacy is not being violated. With the expansion of facial recognition technology, Fight for the Future deputy director Evan Greer said Tuesday, the U.S. is increasingly vulnerable to the same violations.

“Imagine if we could go back in time and prevent governments around the world from ever building nuclear or biological weapons. That’s the moment in history we’re in right now with facial recognition,” said Greer. “This surveillance technology poses such a profound threat to the future of human society and basic liberty that its dangers far outweigh any potential benefits.”

Companies including Amazon, Microsoft, and Google have called on lawmakers to regulate the technology, but Fight for the Future warns that those demands are an “industry trap.”

“We don’t need to regulate it, we need to ban it entirely,” Greer said.

The campaign’s launch comes days after the Washington Post reported that the FBI and ICE have used facial recognition technology to mine state drivers’ license databases, accessing the data of millions of people without warrants or Congressional approval.

ICE is using facial recognition to search DMV databases and target undocumented people. Even in states where undocumented people are legally allowed to get drivers licenses. We need to BAN #facialrecognition now. https://t.co/lXUm7DnWco #BanFacialRecognition

— Fight for the Future (@fightfortheftr) July 9, 2019

The use of the technology by federal, state, and local agencies makes discrimination, police harassment, and false arrests or deportations more likely, Fight for the Future said, as facial recognition programs misidentify suspects up to 98 percent of the time—with women and people of color especially prone to being misidentified.

In addition to invading privacy and putting people in danger of being apprehended for crimes they didn’t commit, the technology leaves the data of millions of people vulnerable to potential security breaches.

“Once our biometric information is collected and stored in government databases, it’s an easy target for identity thieves or state-sponsored hackers,” wrote Fight for the Future.

“This has already happened,” the group added, citing the story of hackers who were able to access the photos and license plates of an untold number of travelers after Customs and Border Protection (CBP) collected the data.

CBP is currently seeking to expand the use of facial recognition technology in major airports, a possibility Fight for the Future warned against.

The group called on supporters to sign a petition demanding that lawmakers fight for a total ban on the government’s use of facial recognition technology, following the example of San Francisco and Somerville, Massachusetts, which have outlawed its use.

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Facial recognition surveillance technology is unreliable, biased, and a threat to basic rights and safety. Tell your local, state, and Federal elected officials to ban it. https://t.co/lXUm7D6kNO#BanFacialRecognition

— Fight for the Future (@fightfortheftr) July 9, 2019

“We’re joining this outcry to call for a complete ban on facial recognition,” Fight for the Future wrote. “It’s time the federal government take a stand now to prevent this technology from proliferating across the country.”

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Our work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. Feel free to republish and share widely.

Julia Conley is a staff writer for Common Dreams, where this article first appeared.

Image: The digital rights group Fight for the Future launched a national campaign on Tuesday to demand a ban on facial recognition technology. (Photo: Fight for the Future)

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By Nathan Sheard

Earlier this week, Oakland’s City Council voted unanimously to ban local government use of face surveillance. The amendment to Oakland’s Surveillance and Community Safety Ordinance will make Oakland the third U.S. city to take this critical step toward protecting the safety, privacy, and civil liberties of its residents.

Local governments like those in San Francisco, CA; Somerville, MA; and now Oakland, CA are leading the way in proactively heading off the threat of this particularly pernicious form of surveillance. However, after a series of hearings by the House Oversight Committee, national and international policymakers have also begun to look closely at the technology’s threat to human rights and civil liberties.

On the same day that Oakland’s City Council voted to ban government use of the technology, the House of Representatives passed a bipartisan amendment to the Intelligence Authorization Act (H.R. 3494) that would require the Director of National Intelligence to report on the use of face surveillance by intelligence agencies. David Kaye, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, has also called for a moratorium on face surveillance saying, “Surveillance tools can interfere with human rights, from the right to privacy and freedom of expression to rights of association and assembly.”

Over the last several years, EFF has continuously voiced concerns over the First and Fourth Amendment implications of government use of face surveillance. These concerns are exacerbated by research conducted by MIT’s Media Lab regarding the technology’s high error rates for women and people of color. However, even if manufacturers are successful in addressing the technology’s substantially higher error rates for already marginalized communities, government use of face recognition technology will still threaten safety and privacy, chill free speech, and amplify historical and ongoing discrimination in our criminal system.

Even as Oakland’s face surveillance ban awaits a procedural second reading, lawmakers and community members across the country are considering their own prohibitions and moratoriums on their local government’s use. This week, the Public Safety Committee in the neighboring city of Berkeley, CA held a hearing on their own proposed ban, and lawmakers across the country took to Twitter to share news of their like intentions.

Massachusetts residents, beyond Somerville, hoping to protect their communities from face surveillance should contact their state lawmakers in support of S.1385 and H.1538, the proposed bills calling for a moratorium throughout the Commonwealth. Outside of Massachusetts, as governing bodies across the country adjourn for their summer recess, now is an opportune time to call on your own representatives to take a stand for the rights of their constituents, by banning government use of face surveillance in your community.

As EFF’s Grassroots Advocacy Organizer, “nash” works directly with community members and organizations to take advantage of the full range of tools provided by access to tech, while engaging in empowering action toward the maintenance of digital privacy and information security.

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This article was sourced from EFF.org

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