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Yes, Amazon Is Tracking People

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Re: Yes, Amazon Is Tracking People

#101

Post by Amezarak »

Zarath wrote: post #61
deleted_account wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are people surprised that real-time image analysis has been commodified or that local governments are already applying this technology ahead of policy discussions? Clarifying edit: I'm not being disingenuous. I may be too close to the technology to grok why this thread is a down-vote minefield. Running OpenCV on an Arduino board is years-old proof-of-concept stuff and now I have an AWS DeepLens sitting on my desk tha…

No, but I'm sure many of the people working on it will continue to deny that they are simply building tools of control. That, or they don't care, or think it's a good thing.

There's not enough upvotes for this comment. This what the Silicon Valley mindset leads to. This is what the attitude that even if technology isn't good and empowering, it's inevitable, leads to. This is what the "whatever it takes to make money" mindset leads to. This is what all these brave young engineers going out there to "change the world" and make it a better place have done.

Totalitarianism, forever. Take solace, though, citizen: it's not just the government tracking everything you do, it's everyone!

It makes me sick. I wish I had never gone into CS. I too am a collaborator. If it were up to me, we'd destroy the machines in a Butlerian Jihad. The road we're going down is dystopia with no way out. The tools of control will be total, all-encompassing, omniscient.

Re: Yes, Amazon Is Tracking People

#102

Post by atomical »

patrickg_zill wrote: post #48

As long as I or you can use it to track the coming and going of your Congressman and Senators, at the same price that Amazon charges others, I guess it is okay. That nice townhouse he visited with the attractive blonde who lives there, while his wife was out of town? It's ok for me to track and then publish the info, right? We're all equal when we are in public view, right?

Imagine license plate readers all over town committing license plate numbers to a blockchain.

Re: Yes, Amazon Is Tracking People

#103

Post by oneplane »

phyzome wrote: post #19
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.

So are people in general, doesn't mean we're gonna kill everyone does it?

For everything there is a use that could enable any dystopia, doesn't mean that it will actually enable it.

Re: Yes, Amazon Is Tracking People

#104

Post by [deleted] »

driverdan wrote: post #56
patrickg_zill wrote: post #48

As long as I or you can use it to track the coming and going of your Congressman and Senators, at the same price that Amazon charges others, I guess it is okay. That nice townhouse he visited with the attractive blonde who lives there, while his wife was out of town? It's ok for me to track and then publish the info, right? We're all equal when we are in public view, right?

I've long wanted to setup a system like this. Cameras facing all entrances and exits of the state capitol would be fed into ALPR and facial recognition software. There are enough photos of elected officials to train facial recognition. It would be easy to identify who is coming and going, what cars they own, who they travel with, and their patterns.

[deleted]

Re: Yes, Amazon Is Tracking People

#105

Post by oneplane »

ben_w wrote: post #93
njarboe wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this is what happens. National sovereignty still exists. Maybe, since Europeans have a supra-national entity above their countries, they don't quite grok that everywhere else a country is the top giver of the law.

I doubt it’s particularly different to Americans having trouble with the idea that not everyone has the first or second amendments. Or, even, an explicit constitution.

It's the same with many europeans having trouble with the idea that you can't safely drink tap water, have no public health guarantee and education isn't equal for everyone in the US ;-)

On a more serious note; stuff like the US amendments is often already included in the base law (the generic name for constitution) as they are much older than the US. The times where the base law was somewhat more moldable (like before widespread literacy) made that possible. For example, freedom of religion is pretty universal, except in countries where a ruling religion exists which inherently to the religion bans all others. Arms are usually removed from base laws a few hundred years in as they directly conflict with the laws that ban killing people.

Re: Yes, Amazon Is Tracking People

#106

Post by mhuffman »

Spooky23 wrote: post #89
Gaelan wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon is still facilitating it. If you’re selling guns to someone you know is a a serial killer, “someone else would have sold them a gun” is not a defense. Edit: especially if you run ads about how effective your guns are for serial killing.

There’s a big difference between committing a crime and engaging in lawful commerce. By your standard, HN is on the same level as Amazon, as there have been many articles here over the years describing technical details on how to implement such a system available to anyone. A serial killer may be using a raspberry pi based facial recognition system that he learned about here, right now to stalk a victim. That’s an un…

Well I mean everything is lawful commerce until it isn't. That doesn't mean it was right to do.

Re: Yes, Amazon Is Tracking People

#107

Post by imaoreo »

dopamean wrote: post #87
hudon wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe it's the latter, given the last two paragraphs of TFA: > In order to protect civil liberties without hampering innovation, lawmakers should require public input before surveillance tools are deployed and ensure that facial recognition databases are purged of data related to law-abiding people. > lawmakers should ensure that real-time facial recognition capability is not merged with police cameras, whether t…

Who decides what's law abiding? Is it just felonies? Felonise + certain misdemeanors? Jay walking? What if I broke the law 10 years ago but have been a model citizen since? This kind of language worries me. > lawmakers should require public input before surveillance tools are deployed Again, what does that mean? Input is not the same thing as saying the public can veto it. Even if it does required explicit approval f…

Exactly, look what's happening in China and try to convince yourself that we are not starting to walk down that road.

Re: Yes, Amazon Is Tracking People

#108

Post by williesleg »

And yet they cannot solve crimes and just write traffic tickets. I remember being in Boston a few years ago, someone smashed the passenger window of my car and stole a whole bunch of stuff. There was the crook's blood in the car along with blood fingerprints all over the place. The cops didn't even want to take any of it as evidence. Just turn it into my insurance, they said. Have a nice day.

Re: Yes, Amazon Is Tracking People

#109

Post by imaoreo »

atomical wrote: post #102
patrickg_zill wrote: post #48

As long as I or you can use it to track the coming and going of your Congressman and Senators, at the same price that Amazon charges others, I guess it is okay. That nice townhouse he visited with the attractive blonde who lives there, while his wife was out of town? It's ok for me to track and then publish the info, right? We're all equal when we are in public view, right?

Imagine license plate readers all over town committing license plate numbers to a blockchain.

California is already rolling out "smart" licence plates, so not far off.

Re: Yes, Amazon Is Tracking People

#110

Post by krick »

atomical wrote: post #102
patrickg_zill wrote: post #48

As long as I or you can use it to track the coming and going of your Congressman and Senators, at the same price that Amazon charges others, I guess it is okay. That nice townhouse he visited with the attractive blonde who lives there, while his wife was out of town? It's ok for me to track and then publish the info, right? We're all equal when we are in public view, right?

Imagine license plate readers all over town committing license plate numbers to a blockchain.

What do you mean by "committing license plate numbers to a blockchain"?
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