cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/15132091
Bedfordshire Police have said just ten arrests were made over the Bedford River Festival this weekend (20/21 July) with Live Facial Recognition (LFR) technology responsible…
“The arrest figure from across the weekend shows that the messaging in the lead up to the event, and the policing during it, were effective in deterring criminal activity…"
Police state surveillance is, by its own perverse motives, self justifying. Among the many thousands in attendance only a couple arrests were made with its help, and so “it was a powerful deterrent!” If it caught many more, then we’d hear them crow about that. If it made false positives, then additional spending would be called for to improve the systems.
Once the money is spent and the people have submitted to be passively datamined, there’s no possible result, other than firm protest, that would call the practice into question. Sadly we are too used to surveillance.
On a related note, I suspect there would’ve been more protests and revolution attempts than we’ve heard about, had the state not already held a monopoly on surveillance, psychology and violence. It’s a trivial matter for an entity possessing all three of those things to break up an emerging protest or revolution that threatens its power.
I’m sure there is copper and other metals that can be sold in these cameras. Has anyone notified the local scrappers?
Shit. I mean, the cameras themselves. They might be in a hardened case, but once you extract it, it’s probably some off-the-shelf webcam and a Raspberry Pi with a cellular or maybe even WiFi module.
Nah such surveilliance cams cost a fucking fortune. You actually might get in serious financial trouble if they find you guilty of destroying one.
I’m certain they’d figure out new books to throw at you. How dare you interfere with the surveillance state?
Anyhoo, I’m too old to be wearing a V mask and burgling such devices. Neither do I live in that town, or that country. Or, on that side of the world. No, it’s up to other brave defenders to fight that battle; I’ve got my hands full trying to prevent my own country from turning into a full-on dictatorship.
PS oh! And WRT to cost, a $400 hammer is still a hammer. Having a fancy plastic shell doesn’t mean the guts aren’t off Alibaba. Or have you dismantled one yourself?
Get ya point mate. Just to answere your question:
Nope didn’t so far. But looked into the prices for personal interest.
The cheap Homesurveilliance stuff - sure cheapest sensors you have seen.
But the expensive stuff? Sensors are actually decent, often coppled with optical zoom.
But none of those are super expensive in the making I believe. The devices promise of delivering and not having any downtime in harsh environments is the relevant price maker.
But tbf the whole area of surveilliance is filled with overpriced shit.
Nonetheless, one that dismantles such appliances would have to pay those stupid prices for compensation. Hence the heads up.
Yah, I hear you. It’s just common for companies to overcharge governments (and corporations) for Enterprise hardware which, often, barely differs from consumer versions except cosmetically.
Were the right people arrested though?
Yes. Computer said so.
You must not question the descision
Ah yes, the ol’ plausible deniability engine!
I thought the computer always says “no.”
But I’m innocent!
Clackety clackety clackety
Computer says No.
“Individuals who do not trigger an alert have their image and biometric data deleted immediately which is irretrievable"
“This is a function that has been built into the software which has been tested independently by the National Physics Laboratory. We would like to reassure the public that the data is irretrievable once deleted.”
Why would a governmental agency responsible for measurements and standards be put in charge of verifying cybersecurity functionality??
Also what about false positives? Do those innocent people get their data stored? And for how long?
There’s something extremely unsettling about the police being able to issue an arrest warrant on anyone and then use surveillance to arrest them anywhere. I can hear bootlickers already saying “don’t commit crimes and you’re fine” but I wonder if they would have used the same argument against the suffragettes…
