Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
You learning how to make other people directly around you care. Start with the easy stuff, like helping them leave WhatsApp and Discord.
There is no effective technical solution for political problems. If you find one, it will soon be outlawed or rendered ineffective (eg if you wear mask and sunglasses, prepare to be harassed by law enforcement). Lobbying to stop unconstrained surveillance is the only option.
If there is no other option than lobbying then there is no real option. The public has rarely ever effectively lobbied for their interests.
may i suggest revolution?
Handheld scanning infrared laser, 5 to 50 watts Basically laser-clean the sensor out of existence
5 to 50 watts
And blinding everyone around you too!
You're going to need a rather tight beam to hit that camera and it will only for milliseconds. It would take really bad luck to hit someone continuously long enough through a reflection (drastic reduction in power level by then) to damage their eyesight, plus camera optics are not very reflective of infrared as they need it for night vision, so they're especially sensitive. But yes, this should be treated with the seriousness of a gun.
You know cameras have an IR filter during the day right.
Even a 1 watt laser will still have enough power after the filter to knock that sensor's clock right out.
Or just use a red laser, they're even cheaper, if less discrete.
In the past, individuals have cut down red light and speed cameras using power saws. Are you suggesting a laser would be easier to just burn the pixels of the camera? Wouldn't that be dangerous for people around you?
Yes, it is dangerous even the reflections off the camera could be dangerous. This requires the same awareness of others as handling a laser cleaner.
Here is an article about using a pulse laser to blind a camera sensor
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physics/articles/10.3389/fphy.2024.1345859/full
May I suggest revolution?
Came here to suggest that. We need to gather sentiment
You need to own a few copies of face recog software, and practice with face restructuring latex makeup which gives you a new realistic face with a new bone structure.
Change walking gate. Get shoes with small platforms to change height, learn to walk naturally on those.
Change mannerisms.
It's doable, but a major pain to pull it off.
Like imagine quickly applying the latex makeup, walking in front of your own identical face recognition camera at home, take everything off, rest, repeat, 10 times a day, 300 days a year, for 10 years. Until it is second nature. Now you can rely on this to do serious work.
You have to create a new person, basically. Assuming you practiced well and tested everything against real software, you can now be a different person for some hours in a reliable way. Once your secondary identity is exposed you'll need a new tertiary identity. Never do anythiny fishy as your base identity.
The real solution is political, like everyone else has said. Because you won't be able to fool the system casually without a massive effort and practice, practice, practice on your own property first, before you rely on this for real work in the wild.
Covid masks can be effective, and it's not as suspicious as asymmetrical makeup or a reflective hoodie. But no, there's no good way to avoid being photographed in public.
I read somewhere they they can identify you typically with about 35% of your face.
Yeah, a high-res image giving the position of ears, eyes, and nose is damning.
ears and eyes alone give you a shocking amount of identifyability. We're getting real fucking close to the CSI levels of facial identification.
glasses and face masks it is then
Mask and sunglasses? Then put random things in your shoe everyday to change your gait?
IR blocking sunglasses are the simplest and most practical solution.
Facial recognition systems compare the distance ratios between your eyes and nose primarily. Hiding your eyes is very effective towards fucking that up. A mask alone is typically not enough.
Sunglasses alone are not enough either. Modern face recognition tech is way better than just distance ratios
Got any further info about these more advanced methods?
I haven't seen anything beyond the feature distance models. I have seen the models that essentially recreate you entire anatomy in 3D, place it in a database, then use that profile to match to in the future--almost like a 3D match move artist would do for visual effects. Not sure if this is just a proof of concept though.
I wouldn't be surprised if the millimeter wave scanners at airports have been collecting 3D models of us for this database over the last decades.
I'd guess they probably just have a big blackbox ML image model now. A lot of computer vision tasks are being replaced by blackbox models.
I don't have any specific technical info. I just know that even 3 years ago the face recognition tech in Moscow could successfully match people even with sunglasses on.
The question is whether they were using infrared to see through normal sunglasses. IR blocking sunglasses prevent "night vision" from seeing through the lenses. Under infared, you can see through normal dark sunglasses like they aren't even there.
Lemon juice? /s
context, for the unaware
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Greater_Pittsburgh_bank_robberies
Mask, sunglasses (and glasses that block IR), slight deviations in movement patterns, and GETTING OUT OF THE CITY.
A hammer?
Don't forget that when you walk the length of your bones can be measured which can be used to identify you.
Yea, but there is a database of peoples faces matched to their names. There is not a database of their bone lengths to the names. That measurement would be done after you were already under suspicion.