Yes, Amazon Is Tracking People • Hacker News Board

Re: Yes, Amazon Is Tracking People

#11

Post by ljw1001 » Fri, Jul 06, 2018, 8:51 PM UTC

hakejam wrote: post #5

Rekognition is a public service and not specific to law enforcement use[1]. [1]: https://aws.amazon.com/rekognition/ Disclaimer: I work for AWS.

It may be available to be licensed for use in the private sector, but it is hardly a "public service." Without exaggeration, I think it would be closer to the truth to call it a "public menace".

Re: Yes, Amazon Is Tracking People

#12

Post by Sir_Substance » Fri, Jul 06, 2018, 8:56 PM UTC

wonder_bread wrote: post #4

Kind of confused why Rekognition continues to be made into the 'bad guy' here. Even if stronger protections are rolled out for this it's become far too easy to make these types of systems to do a great job of keeping them at bay at this point. Most people with programming experience could roll out a reasonably accurate facial comparison/recognition model like Rekognition and deploy it to a Raspberry Pi without expell…

Most people could probably steal from two or three houses without expending too much effort too. Of course, that's illegal because most people don't support allowing random third parties to steal from them. The wider population considers people who do that to be objectively shitty people, and always did, even before there were formalized national codes of laws to forbid it.

Sure makes you think...

Re: Yes, Amazon Is Tracking People

#13

Post by 394549 » Fri, Jul 06, 2018, 8:58 PM UTC

justboxing wrote: post #2

> Amazon’s facial recognition service, Rekognition, is designed to identify and track people going about their daily business. This isn’t hyperbole - a Rekognition spokesperson explicitly mentioned real-time tracking and identification at an Amazon Web Services summit earlier this year. The same spokesperson went on to call Orlando a “smart city,” with cameras everywhere that allow authorities to track persons of int…

> The same spokesperson went on to call Orlando a “smart city,” with cameras everywhere that allow authorities to track persons of interest in real time.

Someone needs to design an AI-powered camera-seeking spraypaint drone.

Re: Yes, Amazon Is Tracking People

#14

Post by pjc50 » Fri, Jul 06, 2018, 9:02 PM UTC

justboxing wrote: post #2

> Amazon’s facial recognition service, Rekognition, is designed to identify and track people going about their daily business. This isn’t hyperbole - a Rekognition spokesperson explicitly mentioned real-time tracking and identification at an Amazon Web Services summit earlier this year. The same spokesperson went on to call Orlando a “smart city,” with cameras everywhere that allow authorities to track persons of int…

I wonder what the GDPR implications of this are.

Re: Yes, Amazon Is Tracking People

#15

Post by zaroth » Fri, Jul 06, 2018, 9:09 PM UTC

_bxg1 wrote: post #3

"asleep at the wheel" is extremely generous.

It’s the hoi polloi they are hoping are asleep in this case.

But IMO no amount of hand wringing will stop this inevitable total surveillance short of a constitutional amendment.

Re: Yes, Amazon Is Tracking People

#16

Post by darawk » Fri, Jul 06, 2018, 9:11 PM UTC

vinchuco wrote: post #10

wonder_bread wrote: post #4

Kind of confused why Rekognition continues to be made into the 'bad guy' here. Even if stronger protections are rolled out for this it's become far too easy to make these types of systems to do a great job of keeping them at bay at this point. Most people with programming experience could roll out a reasonably accurate facial comparison/recognition model like Rekognition and deploy it to a Raspberry Pi without expell…

Companies do it at scale, though. And motivated by profits, not regard for 'good guy' or 'bad guy' status.

This doesn't really matter. You can do it at scale too, just spin up your NN on any of the cloud platforms available. Instant scale. The fact that amazon offers this recognition lowers the barrier hardly at all.

Re: Yes, Amazon Is Tracking People

#17

Post by darawk » Fri, Jul 06, 2018, 9:11 PM UTC

frgtpsswrdlame wrote: post #6

hakejam wrote: post #5

Rekognition is a public service and not specific to law enforcement use[1]. [1]: https://aws.amazon.com/rekognition/ Disclaimer: I work for AWS.

>Rekognition is a public service When this is used to track/recognize my face in a crowd what service is it that I'm receiving?

You're receiving enhanced public safety.

Re: Yes, Amazon Is Tracking People

#18

Post by tajen » Fri, Jul 06, 2018, 9:12 PM UTC

pjc50 wrote: post #14

justboxing wrote: post #2

> Amazon’s facial recognition service, Rekognition, is designed to identify and track people going about their daily business. This isn’t hyperbole - a Rekognition spokesperson explicitly mentioned real-time tracking and identification at an Amazon Web Services summit earlier this year. The same spokesperson went on to call Orlando a “smart city,” with cameras everywhere that allow authorities to track persons of int…

I wonder what the GDPR implications of this are.

If a European goes there, he’ll have to sign a GDPR agreement? but if the city grew tired of that, they could forbid access to Europeans altogether. Which I’m not surprised would happen one day, perhaps not under this form, but becausr of our overprotected status.

Re: Yes, Amazon Is Tracking People

#19

Post by phyzome » Fri, Jul 06, 2018, 9:13 PM UTC

hakejam wrote: post #5

Rekognition is a public service and not specific to law enforcement use[1]. [1]: https://aws.amazon.com/rekognition/ Disclaimer: I work for AWS.

So? It's enabling dystopia.

Re: Yes, Amazon Is Tracking People

#20

Post by tajen » Fri, Jul 06, 2018, 9:17 PM UTC

darawk wrote: post #17

frgtpsswrdlame wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Rekognition is a public service When this is used to track/recognize my face in a crowd what service is it that I'm receiving?

You're receiving enhanced public safety.

The public safety of no people having different political opinion, of no people who would want to raise awareness on the problem of Amazon for this instance, because they could cause unsafe words being told to your ears.