Fwd: Protest Against Face Recognition Software

[Doug Henwood]

>                    Protest Against Face Recognition Software
>
>For immediate release
>5 October 2000
>
>At 1 p.m. on Sunday, 15 October 2000, the Surveillance Camera 
>Players (SCP) will protest against the manufacture and distribution 
>of face recognition software by Visionics, a company that has an 
>office in New Jersey. The protest -- which will take the form of a 
>series of performances by the SCP -- will take place across from 
>Visionics' office at 1 Exchange Place, Jersey City. The press and 
>the general public are invited to attend.
>
>Face recognition software (FRS) is the generic name for computer 
>software programs that match images captured by surveillance cameras 
>with images already stored in computerized databases.  Though not in 
>use in the United States at this time, FRS manufactured by Visionics 
>is currently being used in England, a country in which the mania for 
>closed-circuit television systems has reached truly sociopathic 
>levels. But England is behind the times: only now is the country 
>considering an American-style Bill of Rights! FRS poses a direct 
>threat to the liberties and rights guaranteed by the First and 
>Fourth Amendments, and we don't want it being used here in the U.S.A.
>
>The problem with FRS is that its effectiveness completely depends on 
>the existence and accessibility of databases of facial images. 
>According to Visionics' own Web site, the world's databases already 
>contain 1.1 billion facial images. But FRS won't be effective until 
>each and every person's face is scanned and uploaded.  Otherwise 
>people -- both preferred customers and unwanted guests -- could walk 
>right by software-enhanced surveillance cameras without their 
>identity being known.
>
>Though it might be desirable for certain elements in business and 
>law enforcement, a complete database of the faces of every single 
>human being on the planet is inseparable from a totalitarian 
>nightmare. Certainly it will take totalitarian methods to induce 
>everyone on Earth to let their faces be scanned and uploaded. And so 
>the SCP says, STOP FRS NOW.
>
>
>      For more information, contact the SCP:
>
>      Phone (212) 561-0106
>      E-mail notbored at panix.com
>      Web site <http://www.notbored.org/the-scp.html>