So no, it’s not missing the point. It’s a different point. He’s right, but action against face recognition is also worthwhile.
If you just ban facial recognition, then you are missing the point Schneier's making.
Also, I think it might be easier to wear a mask than to not carry a phone, walk funny, wear bulky clothes over all skin, and never use a credit card. I don't know how hard it is to constantly wear a mask in public though. I'm sure there would be push back.
I did get a few jokes when people came to the door, but everyone knew why I was wearing it. Some did call me a dumbass for doing it, but whatever.
But if it'd been during the summer?
That said, Hong Kong tried to make face masks illegal during the extradition protests, which only resulted in even more protests.
This just reminded me of a typical gun control argument (which I don't disagree with). Banning one particular technology might be still worthwhile, but the argument is valid only after the actual damage is assessed. I think we're still missing the number. (Arguably it's very hard to measure though!)
Not a lawyer though, so I speak with little authority on the topic.
>Harper years
The Liberals were also supporters of this bill, including the current Prime Minister.
In the aftermath of the G20 summit in Hamburg there were some advancements to even tighten the law while at the same time the police was using illegal face recognition software.
Only in cities where pollution isn't a major concern. Any time I'm in Bangkok I'm wearing a mask most of the time that covers everything from my eyes down, and nobody bats an eyelid.
I feel like masks also got a lot more common during the last SARS outbreak, and in other countries it's normal to wear a mask when you're sick.
I think what I'm saying here is: be the change you want to see, and start wearing one[0] as much as possible in your day-to-day life outside / during your commute / whatever, to normalize it?
[0] https://duckduckgo.com/?q=N95+mask+fashion&iax=images&ia=ima...
It may be polite and even prudent to wear one, if you have a cold or the flue. But many people wearing masks makes society feel even more impersonal, individualistic.
May be a cultural thing to get used to, I dunno. You see them mostly in Asia and with Asian people when they visit Europe as tourists. I sometimes wonder 'Are all these people sick, or don't they trust the air in EU, or do they just feel more comfortable hiding their face that it became a habit'.
there's limited resources for political action. If you focus on facial recognition, may be it succeeds. But the data brokering industry will continue on unabated because there are plenty of other sources of data other than face. And now there's less political capital left to fight the fight again.
Best to deploy the limited resources to fight the root cause - that private data and correlation is unregulated, and put limits and transparency laws around it so that no matter what source or what type of data is collected/correlated, the outcomes for citizens are still good.
You have to start somewhere, so it’s better to start with this and then expand, versus trying to pass sweeping legislation, etc.
It seems surprisingly hard to spoof a limp (or any other biomechanic change, like randomly swapping shoe inserts or some prosthesis to change arm movement patterns or something), consistently, for an extended period. Also, painful. Also, noticeable to humans, like most MV-dodging techniques are.
And then there's reflectacles - glasses designed to reflect IR and visible light. I presume they'd mess with an algorithm, but could you code that algorithm to recognise them and raise a flag requiring human input?
Ah man, I love how the cyberpunk dystopian future of my youth has slowly arrived, sadly with less magic and orks, and last I checked, no shady street samurai in bars looking to hire me for my leet decker skills.
But you know, I live in CV beDazzled[1] hope.
[1]https://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-03/designer-a...
What I've read of gait recognition though is that it's not so much about identifying you, as identifying someone walking "suspiciously" in a given area.
Or tracking a person where you can't see their face, based on their gait once recorded.
However, I haven't yet been able to find any papers that describe gait recognition with a subject consciously modifying their gait.
For example, when I'm stressed I tend to walk fast, but when I catch myself doing so, I will actively slow my pace down, and change the distance of my steps - like the old adage of "smiling makes you feel happy when you're not", I find deliberately slowing down my pace, and not taking such long strides, helps me calm myself - especially when combined with a focus on breathing.
What I can't find is any discussion of how existing gait analysis algorithms handle an observed subject deliberately varying their gait.
And what papers I can find on this are largely written by Chinese academics who don't find a 94% identification rate (leaving 6% false positive or negative) to be an issue, which I guess works in a totalitarian collectivist regime where an arrest on a false positive isn't considered a violation of human rights because, lol, human rights.
Which brings me, verbosely, to the academics researching this. How do they incorporate improving the surveillance capabilities of an oppressive government into their personal mores?
Do they take the stance that those doing nothing wrong have to nothing to be afraid of?