WeChat and the Surveillance State
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Re: WeChat and the Surveillance State
#2Pretty much every country is doing it or will be doing it. Some will do in the open and some will hide it from unsuspecting citizens. It is just how human nature works and it is just another way to maintain power and order.
In short, nothing to see here...
Re: WeChat and the Surveillance State
#3This maybe implies a use case where deepfakes could actually used be to the benefit of society.
Re: WeChat and the Surveillance State
#4The bit about face recognition and voice imprinting is most certainly being used to populate some database, but it also serves as a CAPTCHA of sorts.
Advancements in procedural face and voice generation could create a powerful tool to beat CAPTCHA advancements, and to preserve anonymity against creeping surveillance.
Of course, China has hooks into the device manufacturers so doing this is an order of magnitude harder than it already is.
Re: WeChat and the Surveillance State
#5I'm glad this article was written. I think the general public is unaware of how China operates, and through education we can better protect our own civil liberties (and better understand why the China is the way that it is).
Re: WeChat and the Surveillance State
#6The bit about face recognition and voice imprinting is most certainly being used to populate some database, but it also serves as a CAPTCHA of sorts. Advancements in procedural face and voice generation could create a powerful tool to beat CAPTCHA advancements, and to preserve anonymity against creeping surveillance. Of course, China has hooks into the device manufacturers so doing this is an order of magnitude harde…
If posting photos from a 6/4 vigil in Hong Kong got the reporter from zero to the first tier watch list, I have a feeling any biometric mismatches would quickly escalate him to the next tier.
Re: WeChat and the Surveillance State
#7Whatever WeChat's links with policing in China, I believe that they have an equivalent of Face ID to authenticate users. Keeping in mind that WeChat is used as an electronic wallet and almost bank account in China.
It would have been better journalism to mention this instead of only going for the angle of state policing. It's likely that WeChat already had the person's biometrics details because of the above.
Of course that's less catchy than implying that they requested biometrics details because he had posted about Tiananmen commemorations. (though the end result is likely the same)
Re: WeChat and the Surveillance State
#8This maybe implies a use case where deepfakes could actually used be to the benefit of society.
Would you mind elaborating this thought?
Re: WeChat and the Surveillance State
#9And yet facebook wants to be more like WeChat[0].
[0]https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/8/18256226/facebook-wechat-m...
Re: WeChat and the Surveillance State
#10This maybe implies a use case where deepfakes could actually used be to the benefit of society.
I honestly see it going the other way. Deepfakes being used to create fake material that falsely incriminates someone. So if they have the biometrics of an account on file already, they would match a fake video circulating the service to that account and presto you are on a watch list.