Skip to content

David Boles, Blogs

Founded 1983: Liberal Mindset; Conservative Morality

  • Home
  • About David Boles, Blogs
    • Contact
    • Authors
    • Archives
    • Comments Policy
    • Writing
    • Internship
  • David Boles
    • David Boles: Human Meme
    • David Boles Books
    • David Boles University
    • David Boles Brands
    • Hardcore ASL
    • Script Professor
    • IMDb
Posted on October 16, 2012January 21, 2013

Your Billion Dollar FBI Face

by David Boles.In Carceral Nation, Urban Semiotic.4 Comments on Your Billion Dollar FBI Face

On December 22, 2009, I wrote — The Whiteness of Technology — and how HP were discriminating against certain racial features.

We are a nation of masks — we repress our true feelings and protect our basic being. On the surface, we claim we are all equal and that skin color doesn’t matter and that technology is agnostic, non-atavistic, non-discriminatory and non-evangelistic. Today, we have been forced to know better by peeking out from behind our masks to divine the reality before us.

I recently read an alarming article about the FBI spending over a billion dollars so they can casually — and causally! — recognize your face on any street corner or alleyway in which you might find yourself… mugshot on file… or not:

Another application would be the reverse: images of a person of interest from security cameras or public photos uploaded onto the internet could be compared against a national repository of images held by the FBI. An algorithm would perform an automatic search and return a list of potential hits for an officer to sort through and use as possible leads for an investigation.

Ideally, such technological advancements will allow law enforcement to identify criminals more accurately and lead to quicker arrests. But privacy advocates are worried by the broad scope of the FBI’s plans. They are concerned that people with no criminal record who are caught on camera alongside a person of interest could end up in a federal database, or be subject to unwarranted surveillance.

In my War Mask article from February of this year, I wondered if our faces really make up who we are or not:

If we are not our bodies — are we are faces?  Or are we just strings of genetic material that can sometimes single us out of a series of billions of slightly similar strands?  Before we allow eye color changes to become elective surgery and before a military biomask becomes a Black Market alternative to changing faces, we must wrestle with the idea of what identity really means and how we can continue to prove who we are to others as the line between reality and imagination begins to blur into unrecognizability.

I am dismayed at the purposeful gnawing away of our privacy by a government sworn to protect our liberties.  Can you imagine the silent subpoenas that will be served to our wireless carriers when we begin to use facial recognition algorithms to login to our smartphones and tablets?  The FBI won’t have to build any databases because the cellular companies will do all the uploading and parsing work for them!

Is it too late for us to disconnect and try to pry back some of our privacy?  Or have we already lost any sense of fairness and honesty when it comes to remaining private in public?  Sure, we have eyes staring down at us from two miles in the air, but I wonder if any of us are really any safer for the effort. Recognizing our faces doesn’t really prevent any crime — all it does is help raise suspicion against us in the future as our nose and eyes and lips all fall into a “close enough” match for that child predator and terrorist on the loose among us.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

facial recognitionfbiloginprivacy

4 Comments

  1. Gordon Davidescu says:
    October 16, 2012 at 3:03 pm

    Nothing short of a revolution will change that. We’re headed toward Big Brother.

    Loading...
    Log in to Reply
    1. David W. Boles says:
      October 16, 2012 at 3:28 pm

      Right. I think any expectation of privacy-by-default is done. We’re all a perpetual open book now with not even a private thought left to share with no one in particular.

      Loading...
      Log in to Reply
  2. Lillian Boyington says:
    October 16, 2012 at 5:14 pm

    I’ve wanted to withdraw from the ‘matrix’ for quite some time, for that very reason. But technology is so HANDY! 🙂

    Loading...
    Log in to Reply
    1. David W. Boles says:
      October 16, 2012 at 5:21 pm

      You’re right about that, Lillian! We have become our devices!

      Loading...
      Log in to Reply

You must log in to post a comment.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Post navigation

Previous Previous post: The Whatever Starbucks Experience
Next Next post: The California Baby Super Sensitive Shampoo and Bodywash, No Fragrance Review

David Boles, Casts

David Boles, Finds

David Boles, Tweets

My Tweets

David Boles, Seeks

Enter your email address to follow David Boles, Blogs and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 4,515 other subscribers

David Boles, Cleaves

David Boles, Warps

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • GitHub
  • YouTube
  • Vimeo
  • Flickr
  • WordPress
  • Twitch
  • Tumblr
  • Amazon
  • Apple
  • Bandcamp
  • Behance
  • Dropbox
  • Email
  • Medium
  • Pocket
  • Reddit
  • Skype
  • SoundCloud
  • Spotify
  • Google

David Boles, Likes

David Boles, Likes

David Boles, Moves

David Boles, Salts

David Boles, Airs

David Boles, Lives

David Boles, Thinks

David Boles, Rules

David Boles, Blogs is a member publication of David Boles Books Writing & Publishing. All Rights Reserved. Nothing may be republished without prior written consent. Everything remains published at David Boles' sole discretion. Copyright © David Boles. YUkon 2-8888. FAculty 1-3700.
  • Home
  • About David Boles, Blogs
    • Contact
    • Authors
    • Archives
    • Comments Policy
    • Writing
    • Internship
  • David Boles
    • David Boles: Human Meme
    • David Boles Books
    • David Boles University
    • David Boles Brands
    • Hardcore ASL
    • Script Professor
    • IMDb
%d bloggers like this: