“They all look alike to me” – as the UK continues on its path to full blown national socialism, the facial recognition software can’t tell the difference between "people of colour"

Here are a few snippets from the (lengthy) email shown in full below,

You can get to the #together website and sign up here (UK residents only?):

 Together Membership: Join as a Member today (togetherdeclaration.org)

These two sippets about the surveillance state and facial recognition leapt out!

“Numerous studies have shown that this technology – still in its infancy – has inherent biases and can't tell people of colour apart. “

And this:

“One independent report found that the Metropolitan Police's facial recognition software got it wrong 81% of the time. The South Wales Police wrongly matched over 2000 people with potential criminals at just one event.”

The opening paragraphs blow do nothing to allay my suspicions that the UK is now a full blown national socialist (Nazi) state.

Here’s the entire email:

vSURVEILLANCE: Keir Starmer's plan for increased use facial recognition (youtube.com)

Keir Starmer’s speech on Thursday was not just tone deaf and divisive. Choosing a Covid-esque setting, flanked by flags, he also said a number of extremely worrying things.

 He said he was going to increase the use of facial recognition technology, stop peoples’ movements with “criminal banning orders”, and effectively threatened social media companies to censor users further. He also indicated that certain kinds of protest were not “legitimate”.

 On Saturday this was followed up with Labour’s Lord Walney (AKA John Woodcock) seeming to fly a kite for a “Covid-style response” to the recent disorder.

 All of which is a direct assault on freedom-loving people in the UK... 

 Regardless of your views of recent events, we should all recognise there is a “ratchet effect” when freedoms are eroded. 

 They don't want you to have them anyway - so they are hard to get back once lost. "Public safety" is - and will always be - the excuse.

 It's so important we all stand together now.

 Please join us as a member, because that is how we keep going, growing and fighting as strongly as possible against all these threats.

 Let’s home in a bit on the issue of facial recognition, which has been on the rise in the UK for some time, without any public debate or parliamentary scrutiny, on our streets, in our shhops and at public events...

The Metropolitan Police and South Wales Police have been trialing facial recognition for some time, making London and Cardiff surveillance hotspots. 

 Retailers such as Southern Coop and Boots record you and take your biometric data while you shop in their stores. 
 Leafy suburban streets are under surveillance as councils install state-of-the-art technology from China. 

 And cameras at train stations around the UK have been using Amazon AI software to track the demographics of passengers and work out the emotions on their faces. Network Rail cite multiple 'benefits' from such practises, from preventing crime to measuring customer satisfaction in order to maximise revenue. The information gathered could also be used to identify anti-social behaviour such as 'shouting' and 'running'. 

 What could possibly go wrong? 

 Facial recognition works by matching the faces of people walking past special cameras to images on a watch list. They scan particular points of our faces to create biometric maps - the kind of facial equivalent of fingerprints which can then be used to infer personal information about you. The images can be taken from anywhere - photographs held by agencies for ID or social media accounts. No consent is involved. 

From the outset, the use of facial recognition has been controversial. In 2020, Ed Bridges won the world’s first legal challenge to police use of the technology. Bridges' face was scanned while he was Christmas shopping in Cardiff in 2017 and at a protest the following year. The Court of Appeal ruled that South Wales Police’s use of facial recognition violated privacy rights and broke data protection and equality laws.

 Yet – and this won't surprise Together supporters one bit – the state is keen on the use of facial recognition. The Policing minister of the last, Conservative government urged to police chiefs to increase their use of the new technology. Chris Philp also announced that mobile police units would be deployed to English high streets, with facial recognition used in ‘crowded areas to identify people wanted by the police.'

 The last government announced powers allowing the police to compare photos on 50 million driving licenses against images of criminals captured on CCTV, along with the database of passport photos.

 It'll be like you're taking part in a police lineup - all the time. 

 Imagine popping into a shop to buy some chocolate and a shop assistant comes up to you and says: 'you're a thief'. This is exactly what happened to 'Sara' who was told she was banned from all Home Bargains stores despite having done nothing wrong.  

Add Starmer's recent comments, and it's clear the fight is on, and...

 Surprise! Tony Blair's Institute for Global Change conference, held just days into the new Labour government, provided a platform for a ringing endorsement of the technology by the police. Metropolitan Police Director of Intelligence Lindsey Chiswick results said the results of using had so far been “really good”. 

 Er, not really. Numerous studies have shown that this technology – still in its infancy – has inherent biases and can't tell people of colour apart. 

 One independent report found that the Metropolitan Police's facial recognition software got it wrong 81% of the time. The South Wales Police wrongly matched over 2000 people with potential criminals at just one event.

But despite all the reasons against facial recognition, the police seem determined to carry on using it. Despite a successful legal challenge against it, South Wales Police has now resumed its use of facial recognition. In Newham, the council voted unanimously against the police using it in the borough - but the police are disregarding locally-elected politicians.

Police Scotland plan to use facial recognition as a matter of course, and Essex Police – having borrowed equipment from South Wales Police – now want to buy their own for use on a permanent basis.

As the past few years have demonstrated all too clearly, government agencies and big corporations are forming powerful alliances to shape the world they want it to be. And that's not in the interest of ordinary people trying to go about their lives. 

'There is a very instinctive drive to expand surveillance,” says Carissa Véliz, an associate professor in psychology at the Institute for Ethics in AI, at the University of Oxford. 'Human beings like seeing more, seeing further. But surveillance leads to control, and control to a loss of freedom that threatens liberal democracies.'

In the United States, Amazon developed a cosy relationship with law enforcement, allowing footage from privately-owned Ring doorbells to be handed straight to the police without a warrant or any legal process. Even after the device owner had refused. Law enforcement officers made some 1,900 requests for data from Ring cameras even after the device owner has denied the request.

In such a world, no information is private. All public space – even your garden path – is under surveillance by the authorities.
 

Imagine how could these sorts of powers could be used in the event of a future crisis, whether another pandemic or restrictions deemed necessary to control the climate. 

As this powerful short film shows, it would be impossible for individuals to make judgements about what they need to do in their own lives, such as rush to see a loved one in trouble, without being tracked and penalised by the authorities. 

The better news is that there's a wide-ranging opposition against the use of this intrusive, anti-democratic technology. A coalition of MPs, peers and organisations have demanded that police and private companies in the UK stop using live facial recognition. 

We would agree. We understand that, if governments and other over-powerful bodies aren't to control our lives down to the last detail, we must stop the onward march of surveillance - and to do so, we will need to get THE PUBLIC speaking up and making our voices heard. 

So please JOIN US to help halt the march towards a surveillance society it appears technocrat Keir Starmer would like to see.

Together is still run by a tiny core team, carefully. We are entirely supported by our membership - without this we could not continue. 

We don't waste money on unnecessary expenses - but we do inevitably need a certain amount of money just to keep going, and we definitely need more to grow and have more of an impact.

This is really vital because - as the last few days show beyond doubt - none of the huge challenges we face is going away any time soon.

As a member, you will know you are supporting the work we do, but you'll also be able to access discounted event tickets, get a chance to vote at our AGM, access our member-only online calls, and get more involved if you wish.

Please join us as a member here from as little as £3 a month, so we can do more and campaign more strongly for us all. Thank you!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUING SUPPORT
We are always stronger and better #together!

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End of email

Onwards!!!

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