Paper, Rock, Scissors: Thermal Imaging, Facial Recognition & You
Hey all. Haven’t blogged in a while, forgive me as it’s been a crazy time. But I have been podcasting weekly and vlogging weekly… OK, here’s a blockbuster story for you amid this tumultuous time. For those of you on the go, here’s a quick summary: this is about thermal imagery and how it’s going to be used in ‘real-time’ throughout the state of Texas, really, throughout the world, if it's not already in play. The problem with this quote ‘state-of-the-art’ technology is it also doubles as facial recognition. Not bothered by this yet? Keep reading. This, in turn, is going to be uploaded into servers on private and public networks into the coronavirus surveillance system database. Your apartment complex will use it, your homeowners’ association will demand it, businesses will have it, your employment will have it… etc. Getting the picture yet? Let me put this in perspective. Say you’re at your apartment complexes’ pool. Relaxing, drinking whatever it is your drinking. Your temperature is well under 100 degrees – temperature the thermal imagery is set at – where if anyone is above that temperature, they’re immediately identified and taken away by the authorities, quarantined somewhere never to be heard of again… I digress. But then, your face’s image is flagged and then diverted to the police facial recognition (fr) system as a possible person of interest. It misidentifies you, confirms that you are a person of interest and that you are a felon with outstanding warrants (even though you’ve never been arrested in your life) – SWAT rushes into your pool and arrests you right in front of all your neighbors – all because of faulty software used by the coronavirus surveillance system. If this happens. Statistically, your chance is 1 in 5. How do I know this? Because of my research. The fr systems used are faulty and need more rigorous testing. Recently, Fr misidentified 26 California lawmakers as criminal suspects – the article link can be found on my podcast. Link below. That was 1 in 5 lawmakers out of 120 of them – none had criminal records, but 26 were labeled dangerous criminals. WOW, right!
Here’s a quote from one of the lawmakers, “(FR) software is faulty. It really should not be used by any law enforcement agency at this point. Body cameras are there to build trust not to tear it down.”
Yet, companies like Clearview are being used by our government for fr software, cameras, etc… even though they’ve been hacked two times. And they’ve also recalled their cameras. You want their equipment to be used when your state or private entity is monitoring you in real-time? Can’t believe I even had to ask that question and it wasn’t in one of my sci-fi novels. Ugh… How far we’ve fallen…
Understand that the AI being used that will ultimately be the algorithm for this mass coronavirus surveillance system, are being developed right now by USC, Emory University, Harvard, MIT, private companies with shady pasts, all designed for one thing: to watch your EVERY MOVEMENT. In case you didn’t get that, YOUR EVERY MOVEMENT, YOUR BODY TEMPERATURE, YOUR HABITS – ONLINE, NOW OFFLINE. You will be given a score assessment depending on how you obey the laws, how far you keep from your neighbor, how many children you have, how much you make, have you been around the poor, have you been around those that have talked bad about the government, etc. There has to be a better solution. Even if it’s open-source, at least that’s a start. Otherwise, you might as well start calling it the USA (China incorporated). If you think I’m being too drastic, you need to read the report that was given to the top brass of our nation on China back in May of 2019 – it will help shape the picture of what’s to come. It’s titled, ‘Chinese Tech Landscape Overview Roadmap’. I’ll quote from it, “Surveillance is one of the ‘first-and-best customers’ for AI.” Yeah, it’s really in there… OK, if Skynet doesn’t take over or one of the other real tech corporate overlords, I’ll podcast, vlog or blog – possibly all three next week. Take care.