If you've ever seen the show 'Black Mirror' you may have been shocked more than once about how real the dystopian realities they present are so possible and in some cases their story lines are even eerily probable.
I remember watching a few episodes that really disturbed me including one called '15 Million Merits' where the storyline was set in a futuristic corporate world in which workers were forced to ride bicycles to generate power in exchange for basic necessities.
In this article I'd like to make my readers aware of something happening in this day and age that looks like it is straight out of an episode of Black Mirror.
I'm talking about how the Chinese police are now beginning to use high-tech sunglasses to spot suspects in a crowded train station. As you could imagine this newest use of facial recognition technology has brought about a lot of concerns among human rights groups.
In the image above an officer in the central city of Zhengzhou is wearing the digital shades while travellers head home during Chinese New Year, the busiest time for the country’s transit system.
So far, the technology has allowed police to nab seven suspects accused of crimes ranging from human trafficking to hit and runs, as well as another 26 people who were using fake IDs, according to the state-owned People’s Daily, quoting the city’s police department.
This is a bit creepy in my opinion, we are actually seeing surveillence technology being rolled out in front of us without protest. Clearly there are a lot of privacy issues that will come of this. I understand that it is a good crime prevention mechanism but where will this go next?
The system is part of China’s efforts to build a digital surveillance system able to use a variety of biometric data — from photos and iris scans to fingerprints — to keep close tabs on the movements of the entire population.
The rapid development of the technology has triggered a demand for commercial applications of the technology as well, with gyms, restaurants and even public toilets getting in on the facial recognition game.
This is where I draw the line. As governments get more control over the masses the need for protection of personal freedoms is reduced. I would label the idea I'm talking about as 'leverage' and when governments get enough of it, they turn on their populations.
I'm sorry if this sounds like paranoia but just take a minute to think about your freedoms and imagine the few that you were able to list quickly taken away. Protecting personal freedoms is going to be a huge priority as technology is used to do the opposite in society.
The special glasses are being used by four officers positioned at the entrances to Zhengzhou’s east station, according to the People’s Daily. The glasses have a camera connected to a smartphone-like device that allows the officers to take mugshots of suspicious individuals and compare them to a database back at headquarters.
These new technologies can be really shocking and hard to get used to but governments will slowly roll them up under the guise of making a 'safer' society. All of this is for your own good, don't worry.
After they get a positive ID, their app brings up the suspect’s vital information, including name, ethnicity, gender and address. Beyond that, it also tells officers whether the person identified is on the run from the law.
According to experts in this field, they all tend to agree that China is already ahead of Western countries in deploying facial scanners. This is because of the country's lax privacy laws and the fact that the Chinese are much more comfortable with having their pictures, fingerprints and other personal details taken.
Don't despair yet because as one could imagine, these programmes have drawn fierce criticism from human rights organisations and privacy advocates, who are concerned by their potential for abuse.
So what we are looking at is one potential future that hasn't yet been fully realized in the West. Are you guys pro or against police use of AR in the field? Do you expect to see all governments actively using this technology in the next few years?
Please leave thoughts and feedback below.
Source:
‘Black Mirror’ technology: Chinese police don high-tech glasses to nab suspects - HKFP
Image Source:
HKFP
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