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

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

#111

Post by shkkmo »

throwawayfear wrote: post #106
shkkmo wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The kind of insanity that has been the law for well over a year. Getting outraged at an effort to make that policy less draconian is pretty silly.

It can be a law for ten years. Doesn't make it less of a shitty law. And I think the outrage is useful. It will mobilize people until it boils over into action, if enough people do it when it actually counts. This is when it actually counts. Everyone has spent all their Outrage Points on useless shit some actor or celebrity said about something no one will care about on their deathbed, but so few are saying anything…

I was not defending the law.

But the App that is the subject of the article serves to reduce the severity of that law and thus reduces government overreach. To be upset about the App, rather than the original quarantine law, is to be focusing attention in the wrong place.

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

#112

Post by shirro »

etaioinshrdlu wrote: post #30

So, do the people support this? Is this a failure of a democracy, or do the people really want this?

Yes, mostly they do support to varying degrees. The current SA state government has increased in popularity over their handling of the pandemic. Popularity doesn't make something right of course and there are people who disagree but I would argue it isn't a failure of democracy at least as far as local state politics go here.

Covid is a fact of life elsewhere but we have no cases so to sell opening up the state to more visitors the government has to show they are able to control the transition and keep our hospitals working well. We still have comparatively low vaccination rates here as we have been supply constrained so we are going to lag behind what is happening elsewhere.

In a small state like SA people care more about their own families than the rights of people to freely spread an infectious disease. A few days of enforced isolation for someone with a highly infectious disease isn't all that contentious for most people. The alternative to home detention with an app for verification would be putting them in a secure hotel which does not scale or home isolation with spot police checks which wastes a lot of resources. Things will change as we catch up on vaccination rates and see what the real health impacts are.

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

#113

Post by throwawayfear »

notatoad wrote: post #76
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…

yeah, there's been a lot of freaking out about this, but it's much less oppressive than being forced to stay in a quarantine hotel.

Read out loud what you are saying. You are saying that government ordering you to quarantine in your house, with facial recognition and GPS tracking in your own home, is less oppressive than being forced to stay in one of their quarantine hotels. And you're saying that in response to all the "freaking out" about this.

Keep in mind that when quarantined this way, if you fail to respond to their random, RANDOM, pings...they will send police officers to your house to do an in-person quarantine check. And not only that, but these so-called leaders of Australia are celebrating it and rubbing it in Australian faces. Source:

Returning travelers quarantining at home will be forced to download an app that combines facial recognition and geolocation. The state will text them at random times, and thereafter they will have 15 minutes to take a picture of their face in the location where they are supposed to be. Should they fail, the local police department will be sent to follow up in person. “We don’t tell them how often or when, on a random basis they have to reply within 15 minutes,” Premier Steven Marshall explained. “I think every South Australian should feel pretty proud that we are the national pilot for the home-based quarantine app.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/pandemic-a...

You see that? South Australians should feel pretty proud that they're the national pilot for this. What an honor.

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

#114

Post by [deleted] »

Teever wrote: post #95
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…

Why can't they use ankle monitors that they give people who are under house arrest?

[deleted]

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

#115

Post by shkkmo »

throwawayfear wrote: post #82
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…

> 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.

I'm not defending any government here. I am pointing out that people are getting outraged without even understanding what they are being outraged about. When you do that, you undermine your own credibility and potential impact and make it easier for people in power to brush aside your outrage when you do know what you are talking about.

If you really care about these issues it behooves you to inform yourself as well as possible and be as accurate as possible so that you don't do more harm than good for your cause.

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

#116

Post by moistly »

umvi wrote: post #97
everettp wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> rather than in a state-run, guarded, hotel room, or without regular police visits to their home Ah yes these are totally normal things for a democratic country to do

A global pandemic that overwhelms healthcare resources is not a normal thing for a country.

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

#117

Post by seanmcdirmid »

throwawaylinux wrote: post #96
dd444fgdfg wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I for one agree with you. I've never understood why America puts of with basically being a police state, with the level of police brutality and incarceration that they have. And here in aussieland, we don't have that, but we do nothing to protect our liberties.

If society is violent, divided, and less trusting of one another, there is more willingness to turn to the state for protection. Unfortunately this creates a strong incentive for all governments to actually create such societies and increase division and mistrust in order to gain power.

But Australia isn’t violent, divided, and less trusting of one another. Neither are most of the western-style developed countries that turn to the state for protection.

> Unfortunately this creates a strong incentive for all governments to actually create such societies and increase division and mistrust in order to gain power.

Have you actually been to Australia before? Or Europe for that matter? Or Japan? Your claims don’t make much sense with the current examples. All we have is a developed country that heavily values the right to bear arms and has a horrible crime rate, while the other countries are the exact opposite.

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

#118

Post by throwawayfear »

shkkmo wrote: post #111
throwawayfear wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can be a law for ten years. Doesn't make it less of a shitty law. And I think the outrage is useful. It will mobilize people until it boils over into action, if enough people do it when it actually counts. This is when it actually counts. Everyone has spent all their Outrage Points on useless shit some actor or celebrity said about something no one will care about on their deathbed, but so few are saying anything…

I was not defending the law. But the App that is the subject of the article serves to reduce the severity of that law and thus reduces government overreach. To be upset about the App, rather than the original quarantine law, is to be focusing attention in the wrong place.

Tell me what about this reduces government overreach and the severity of the law.

Returning travelers quarantining at home will be forced to download an app that combines facial recognition and geolocation. The state will text them at random times, and thereafter they will have 15 minutes to take a picture of their face in the location where they are supposed to be. Should they fail, the local police department will be sent to follow up in person. “We don’t tell them how often or when, on a random basis they have to reply within 15 minutes,” Premier Steven Marshall explained. “I think every South Australian should feel pretty proud that we are the national pilot for the home-based quarantine app.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/pandemic-a...

It's a reduction in government overreach that you have a "choice" between one of their quarantine "hotels" or in-home surveillance? Is the part that is the lesser government overreach, the part where if you fail to address one of their random pings they'll send officers to your house to conduct an in-person check?

The app isn't the problem in itself. The problem is the enslavement. This is a system of enslavement.

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

#119

Post by throwawayfear »

nineteen999 wrote: post #32

This headline is misleading ... "Australian gov" sounds like the Australian Federal government, but the government in question is the South Australian government, which is a State gov.

It is the article's headline, and there wasn't enough space to edit in the specific state. But is it actually a meaningful distinction as far as these policies being constrained permanently to just one part of Australia? Will this spread everywhere or is there a reason why this would only be constrained to a really small town no one really notices?

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

#120

Post by throwawayfear »

everettp wrote: post #83
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.

Returning travelers quarantining at home will be forced to download an app that combines facial recognition and geolocation. The state will text them at random times, and thereafter they will have 15 minutes to take a picture of their face in the location where they are supposed to be. Should they fail, the local police department will be sent to follow up in person. “We don’t tell them how often or when, on a random basis they have to reply within 15 minutes,” Premier Steven Marshall explained. “I think every South Australian should feel pretty proud that we are the national pilot for the home-based quarantine app.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/pandemic-a...

Ahhhhh joy, the choice between a state-run guarded hotel room, or in-home surveillance with random pings that send the police to your house if you don't respond within 15 minutes.

What a sensible and efficient use of technology!

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