Man assumed dead brother's identity in 1965, caught by facial recognition

latimes.com

2 points·classichasclass··3 comments

That's really cool

What part of it is cool?

- His claim that he took on his deceased brother’s identity at the direction of the Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations while participating in an undercover operation in the 1960s?

- The fact that his benefits were previously investigated by the Social Security Administration in 2010 for potential fraud, and his benefits were upheld?

- The fact that state/government agencies are using facial recognition software in the US to bring potential criminal charges against citizens in ways similar but yet different from authoritarian governments like Iran and China?

- The suggestion from his legal team that incarcerating him at 86 years of age will cost the government more than what he allegedly stole from the government as part of his alleged Social Security fraud scheme?

Using facial recognition to catch someone who's been getting away with a crime for decades. I would be opposed to using facial recognition in public like they do in China, but if we're just trying to flag potential fraud by matching two IDs with the same face, then I don't have a problem with that. It's not collecting any new data that the government didn't already have; it's just analyzing the data faster than a human could.

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