Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Australian gov to use facial recognition and GPS tracking to enforce quarantine

geospatialworld.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 205 posts

Re: Australian gov to use facial recognition and GPS tracking to enforce quarantine

#81

Post by ipaddr »

throwawayfear wrote: post #55
notyourday wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But we have not tried putting people into individual cages yet. We should do it for their own good. After all, COVID is terrible for grandma Suzi. If we space the cages at 10 feet rather than 6 it should totally work to stop the spread of COVID and it will all be good! #trustthescience

This is tongue in cheek but there are absolutely people even in tech who are either stupid enough to go along with that or secretly want that because they are full of hate towards the “unvaxxed.” Which makes the media fearmongering about the “unvaxxed” even more dangerous. They never mention immunity from past infection which is now known to be superior protection. Here’s a recent source: https://www.science.org/cont…

They are the most likely to go in a cage.. for society because experts and medical professional say it is important.

Re: Australian gov to use facial recognition and GPS tracking to enforce quarantine

#82

Post by throwawayfear »

shkkmo wrote: post #54

Before you jump on your outrage high horse, it would be worth your time to investigate the details. This is about South Australia adopting a new quarantine at home option for those who are entering the country. Allowing people to quaratine at home with an App rather than at designated quarantine hotels is a REDUCTION in government overreach. In Western Australia where something similar is in use, this is a voluntary…

“It’s not government overreach, you have a choice of ‘temporary’ in-home facial recognition and GPS surveillance or staying at a quarantine hotel.”

Not only is this a laughable “choice”, the kind of manipulative choice you’d expect a tech manager to pretend to offer you when all his projects suck but he wants you to feel like you “picked” a project, it’s also naive to present it as a choice. You don’t wait until it’s mandatory for everyone to say something. You say it now when the machine is rearing its ugly head and you can see the writing on the wall.

Keep in mind you are writing this in defense of a gov that presumes itself to be in charge of how many people you can have over. Source:

https://theconversation.com/vaccine-passports-are-coming-to-...

“NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian yesterday announced freedoms for fully vaccinated people once 70% of the state’s eligible population are double dosed. These include being able to go to hospitality venues, hairdressers and gyms, and have five people to your home.”

Seems more than NECESSARY to cry wolf right now. The slope is slippery. We all know they will push these systems as far as they can if they are allowed to. Cry wolf when the wolf is coming, not when it has eaten your chickens already.

Re: Australian gov to use facial recognition and GPS tracking to enforce quarantine

#83

Post by everettp »

amanzi wrote: post #66

The opening paragraph of the article describes what is actually happening and it's far less ominous that what the comments here suggest. "In an official statement, the State Government announced a contract to a Western Australian (WA) company for $1.1 million to develop a new smartphone app that uses facial recognition and GPS tracking technology to monitor people who are ordered to self-quarantine at home, reported…

Moreover, it appears to be an optional way of allowing returned travellers to serve out their quarantine period at a place of their choosing rather than in a state-run, guarded, hotel room, or without regular police visits to their home. I would have thought HN would regard this as a sensible and efficient use of technology.

Re: Australian gov to use facial recognition and GPS tracking to enforce quarantine

#84

Post by jp0d »

hilbert42 wrote: post #71
tosstoyevsky wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people aren’t to blame for an extreme government overreach.

I hate this and it's gross government overreach but it's those few bastards who've deliberately and surreptitiously defied quarantine that's given the government the excuse it needs to so act. Unlike the US, COVID was essentially controlled in Australia until some very specific violations of quarantine happened - and the outbreak traced to these violators. These outbreaks weren't of iffy origin, they were clearcut li…

Totally agree with you on this one. Nobody really wants the govt to abuse their power to implement such measures. However, those few bastards are the reason why we all are having to suffer! If we all could agree and limit our movements until the vaccines targets are met, the death and hospitalisation rates should drop, statistically speaking! Violations like this are quite rampant in some suburbs/communities! One of my mates was at a takeaway food place in Craigieburn and an entire family of 5 with no masks had gathered behind him and were almost within a few centimetres. The guy got quite aggro when confronted by my mate! This is just getting mental!

Re: Australian gov to use facial recognition and GPS tracking to enforce quarantine

#85

Post by shirro »

The Australian federal government has introduced wide ranging warrantless powers that allow for a lot of potential abuse of computers and communications. These have had bi-partisan support and been rushed through parliament with very little debate or discussion from the complicit mainstream media. This stuff is likely pushed by our large allies and it isn't going away and likely allows Australia to be used as a backdoor to spy on our allies citizens as well. This is potentially really serious long term problem and gets almost no debate in Australia.

Meanwhile these localised state based measures aimed at fighting this pandemic are another thing entirely. Our state governments are not part of five eyes and aren't under pressure to maintain any of these measures indefinitely. They want to keep local businesses active by avoiding lockdowns and keep their tightly budgeted public health systems working.

Our less populated states here managed to get through the pandemic basically virus free without much in the way of restrictions within their states. I don't think people understand how good we have had this.

Our vaccines supply was delayed but now that has improved all the states are opening up once vaccine targets are reached and the state want to ease into the change. We still have very low vaccination rates compared to many countries where vaccinations were expedited as the only real viable solution. To reopen state borders and allow more potentially infected people in we need to be able to quarantine infectious people without locking them up and an app is a cheap solution. Once covid is endemic and as vaccination rates climb there won't be any point to quarantining people and the app will be discarded. It isn't for surveilling the entire population but for individuals for the relatively short time they might be shedding virus.

People are right to be vigilant but you all have the wrong target here. The right target is the Australian federal government's mass surveillance laws. An app that will be used for a week or two by a sick person then discarded isn't the real problem.

Re: Australian gov to use facial recognition and GPS tracking to enforce quarantine

#86

Post by throwawayfear »

6nf wrote: post #74
drcross wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think you need a vaccine for a disease with a median age of death that's 84 you've badly failed at basic risk analysis and you've been massaged by the machine.

The government is moving to vaccinate younger and younger kids even though the risk to them from covid is much much less than the risks from the vaccines. In the UK the scientists specifically came out against vaccinating kids because the evidence is not there, but the UK govt is 'ignoring The Science' and moving ahead anyway.

Not only is the evidence not there, but there is new evidence as of a few days ago that it may actually be riskier for them to get the Pfizer jab than to get covid.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/10/boys-more-at-r...

Re: Australian gov to use facial recognition and GPS tracking to enforce quarantine

#87

Post by HKH2 »

the_third_wave wrote: post #61
throwawayfear wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rally your people and take it to the politicians’ offices until they throw out these policies entirely. Wear masks and go in big numbers.

Better throw out the politicians together with the policies. Now that they've shown their true colours it would be foolhardy to expect them to restrain their authoritarian instincts come the next emergency - and if there is one thing easily come by these days it seems to be emergencies. Kick 'm out, elect a new batch and keep their feet to the fire.

Both major parties are authoritarian. Australia has a good electoral system but people have to stop believing in major parties, or that it doesn't matter, and vote in droves for independents and minor parties (who, if unelected, give their votes to the party they prefer).

Re: Australian gov to use facial recognition and GPS tracking to enforce quarantine

#88

Post by throwawayfear »

FridgeSeal wrote: post #79
throwawayfear wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Take a step back and think critically about what you are saying and what kind of system you are building. You are building a system of enslavement. You will not be able to go anywhere or do anything except without the arbitrary permission from authorities who don’t care about you. This pandemic is nowhere near that dangerous to justify this. Where do you draw the line? When you can’t shop in the grocery store unless…

Is the number after your throwaway name a counter of all the accounts you’ve had to create because they keep getting removed for saying silly stuff like this?

I have never had an account here removed or reprimanded, and I’ve always lurked. I’ve made a single-digit number of accounts over the years, but hardly post(ed).

I am posting far outside my comfort zone because the alarm bells are ringing. Everything about this situation is getting more and more terrible the longer it is allowed to continue.

I would prefer to lurk and not talk. Like before.

Re: Australian gov to use facial recognition and GPS tracking to enforce quarantine

#89

Post by dane-pgp »

6nf wrote: post #74
drcross wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think you need a vaccine for a disease with a median age of death that's 84 you've badly failed at basic risk analysis and you've been massaged by the machine.

The government is moving to vaccinate younger and younger kids even though the risk to them from covid is much much less than the risks from the vaccines. In the UK the scientists specifically came out against vaccinating kids because the evidence is not there, but the UK govt is 'ignoring The Science' and moving ahead anyway.

To be fair, the UK government is not ignoring the scientific consensus that children are more likely to be harmed than benefit from the vaccine, as it knows full well the consequences of its policy. Instead, the government is ignoring the ethics of coercing the young (who can't vote for them) into undergoing a medical procedure which mostly protects the old (who do vote for them).

Re: Australian gov to use facial recognition and GPS tracking to enforce quarantine

#90

Post by hug »

throwawayfear wrote: post #60
hug wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Do you consider people with immunity from past infections to be antivaxers? https://www.science.org/content/article/having-sars-cov-2-on... Do you believe covid is dangerous enough to justify turning Australia into a totalitarian regime where you need to show papers to go anywhere and have constant surveillance even in your own home? Did you know they’re even dangling how many people can visit your home as a carrot?…

> Do you consider people with immunity from past infections to be antivaxers?

In Australia, for all intents and purposes, yes.

Thanks to the terrible "totalitarian regime", less than one percent of our population has yet to catch COVID. We've had even less deaths! It's fuckin' awesome that we've managed to come out of this so well, almost entirely thanks to lockdown.

The route out of lockdown, without massively increasing the numbers of preventable deaths, is vaccination.

It's simpler and more expedient for me, and the government, to treat all Australians who refuse to get vaccinated (as opposed to being unable to get vaccinated, of course) as either idiots, petulant children, or misled and out of touch with reality.

Either way, I appreciate that the carrot & sometimes the stick is necessary to force people to abide by the laws of their society. Just like it's not your choice to drink and drive, it's not really your choice not to get vaccinated while participating in Australian society. These are the norms that the majority of our country believe in.

If you don't want to get vaccinated, don't participate. Go find a community of like-minded rugged individualists somewhere. Move to Texas, maybe. (Sorry, Texans.)

> You’re falling for their us-them division tactic where they get you to hate the “anti vax” until you build the systems of your own enslavement.

Nah, I already harboured a great deal of spite for anti-vax idiots prior to COVID, didn't need any help from the government.

...

And all that said, if the government doesn't remove restrictions once we reach 80% vaccinated and more, I will be fighting those governments tooth and nail. But we're not there yet.

Post reply on HN