I guess 1984 is fast approaching.

 

An Auckland supermarket is reversing policy that asked customers to remove their face masks so they could be better scanned by the store's facial recognition software.

 

The Papakura branch of New World had been enforcing the policy, asking those wearing masks to remove them and put them back on once they were inside, to help combat theft.

 

 

 

Sounds just like the same old conspiracy wrapped up in a new wrapper. 

The cold hard truth is your importance and interest to strangers is, politely speaking, a fantasy. Rest assured, no one cares where you go, what you do - except for marketeers trying to sell you stuff - and even they don't care who you are. 

To those saying that this will be abused, you are giving me deja vu. History shows you're wrong. I remember my primary-school teacher in the 80's telling us that the (future) cashless society was going to be very bad because the Govt could/would abuse it and use it to track you, see where you went, what you bought etc. Well, they could, but the reality is they have much better things to do, and reputations to polish.

Sure, once in a while the police use bank records (acquired via court warrant) to assist investigations, but we all agree that this is a good thing. 

tripper1000: Sure, once in a while the police use bank records (acquired via court warrant) to assist investigations, but we all agree that this is a good thing.

cruxis:

 

I am really interested in setting something up outside the house. Is there standardization of the biometric hash for different software in use ? To create a database of shopliftiing dirtbags to share between the local diarys. Something that alerts the shopkeeper when a possible dirtbag enters the store and be on watch.

I have been meaning to try out facial regonition and capture people who come up my driveway. Is there any decent Docker containers out there?

tripper1000:

 

Sounds just like the same old conspiracy wrapped up in a new wrapper. 

 

The cold hard truth is your importance and interest to strangers is, politely speaking, a fantasy. Rest assured, no one cares where you go, what you do - except for marketeers trying to sell you stuff - and even they don't care who you are. 

 

To those saying that this will be abused, you are giving me deja vu. History shows you're wrong. I remember my primary-school teacher in the 80's telling us that the (future) cashless society was going to be very bad because the Govt could/would abuse it and use it to track you, see where you went, what you bought etc. Well, they could, but the reality is they have much better things to do, and reputations to polish.

 

Sure, once in a while the police use bank records (acquired via court warrant) to assist investigations, but we all agree that this is a good thing. 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course you are right this stuff has never been or never would be abused. 

rb99:

 

I guess 1984 is fast approaching.

 

It has been here for a long time - NZ is just catching up.

"Research by Clarion Security Systems estimates that there are over 942,562 CCTV Cameras in London, meaning there is 1 CCTV camera for every 10 people in the capital. You are likely to be captured on London CCTV up to 70 times per day."

UK roads are widely covered by ANPR cameras and if you drive past one with no insurance, no WOF, no rego, in a stolen car or in a vehicle wanted in connection with a crime, you will be getting a penalty in the post or flashing blue lights in the rear view mirror. Police cars also have the cameras on board and can check in real time as they  cruise the highways.

UK roads are also covered in speed cameras (including sneaky ones that use ANPR to calculate your speed between two points miles apart!) and you will get a fine AND points for camera offences.

Big Brother has been watching for decades.

mattwnz:

 

 

An Auckland supermarket is reversing policy that asked customers to remove their face masks so they could be better scanned by the store's facial recognition software.

 

The Papakura branch of New World had been enforcing the policy, asking those wearing masks to remove them and put them back on once they were inside, to help combat theft.

 

 

 

Wow, No caps, sunglasses hoodies either. WTH. 

 

Shops were banning hoodies in the 1980's , its hardly new, and it was for exactly the same problem.

gzt:

tripper1000: Sure, once in a while the police use bank records (acquired via court warrant) to assist investigations, but we all agree that this is a good thing.

You might need to put on the tinfoil hat. No warrant required for bank records apparently:

https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/national/police-caught-accessing-bank-information/

That's a 5 year-old article. Anything more recent?
(Police are now required to obtain a Production Order to get banking information...)

More recently (not banking records related) - 

Didnt the cops just admit to falsely reporting a vehicle stolen to gain access to CCTV footage to track the border hoppers when the Covid lockdown started (the ones that went to Northland)?

My opinion is that they will operate on "the ends justify the means" basis where required, on the one hand, its gets them the result they (and potentially the public) want, on the other, it can breach someones "rights" (to be clear, I think a victims rights should outweigh a criminals rights 8 days a week).

Dratsab: That's a 5 year-old article. Anything more recent?
(Police are now required to obtain a Production Order to get banking information...)

NZCCL: The Search and Surveillance Act allowed for anyone (except an enforcement officer) to be appointed as an issuing officer who could sign off on search warrants. There was no requirement for legal training and no protection against them being unduly biased.

We are concerned that the law is now so broad that it must be very tempting for agencies to find a ‘friendly’ issuing officer and ask them to approve all of their warrant applications.

We know of no statistics collected about who can issue warrants, how many warrants they issue, and how many warrant applications that they refuse. This would seem to be important information when assessing how search and surveillance powers are used and possibly abused.

robjg63:

 

Actually - come to think of it, one of the supermarkets has had cameras in the scanners at self checkout for ages that records you while you are there.

 

I presume to try and make sure you aren't nicking things.

 

My local Countdown (in the Glenfield Mall) has cameras in their self-checkout scanners. They show your face in a little window on the screen, so they've definitely got the camera pointing to where your head should be. I was a bit surprised when Countdown recently said they don't do any facial recognition in their stores; why else would these scanners have a camera in them pointed at your head?

What is wrong with a computer capturing a face, storing it and then matching to live video?

Anyone could manually take snapshots of people from cctv, put it into a spreadsheet and tell security to match anyone.

Difference here is that the task is being automated.

We've had ANPR cameras at many places for years. No one complains about their car's number plate being captured and identified.

I have a business NVR, with facial recognition, and it is a very capable device for aiding in evidence capturing.

It is awesome technology for a shop to find information quickly, rather than manually.