Australian Government Claims That Facial Recognition Systems Increase Privacy…
from the even-orwell-would-have-said-this-goes-too-far dept
Via Josh Taylor, we learn of the recently released “Intergovernmental Agreement on Identity Matching Services”, which is a fancy way of saying that the federal government and Australian state and territory governments had agreed to work together on a big face recognition surveillance system. But the truly incredible thing is that these Australian governments have decided to try to out-Orwell Orwell, by arguing that pervasive facial recognition is actually… good for privacy.
The Identity Matching Services will help promote privacy by strengthening the integrity and security of Australia?s identity infrastructure?the identity management systems of government Agencies that issue Australia?s core identity documents such as driver licences and passports. These systems play an important role in preventing identity crime. Identity crime is one of the most common and costly crimes in Australia and is a key enabler of serious and organised crime. Identity crime is also a threat to privacy when it involves the theft or assumption of the identity of an individual. The misuse of personal information for criminal purposes causes substantial harm to the economy and individuals each year.
That’s… an impressive level of bullshit. As Steven Clark points out… that’s not privacy.
Wait … what? … that's not privacy, though … *headdesk* https://t.co/yIedIHigOF
— Steven R Clark (@maelorin) October 5, 2017
We often see people make the silly claim that security and privacy are at odds with one another, which we believe is generally not true. In fact, there are strong arguments that greater privacy increases security by better protecting everyone (go encryption!). But here, Australia appears to be trying to flip that rationale totally on its head by arguing that the more security you have, the better it is for privacy, because they’ll catch those nasty criminals who aim to do harm to your privacy. But… that’s not privacy. Indeed, it says nothing of how governments, for example, might violate everyone’s privacy with such a system (which is a larger concern than your everyday criminal).
It’s difficult to take such a system seriously, when this is how they approach the privacy question.
Filed Under: australia, facial recognition, privacy, security
Comments on “Australian Government Claims That Facial Recognition Systems Increase Privacy…”
“promote privacy”
Whose privacy?
I guess their point is that if someone impersonates you to, say, your medical insurance, they could obtain your medical records, which would affect your privacy?
Not that ther’s a rash of people forging passports to obtain medical records…
Re: Re:
That is not a problem, but the government tracking which church, clubs and pubs you frequent is a massive invasion of privacy.
Re: Re: Re:
It also passes along literally everything it gets it hands on to the other 5 eye members.
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Let freedom reign
Re: Response to: Anonymous Coward on Oct 12th, 2017 @ 11:06am
But there will be.
Governments are putting everything about us online and linking it together.
It is a hacker’s wet dream.
Convolution of Logic
so, to protect me from Identity Theft, the proposal is to monitor me 24*7 – knowing exactly where I am, what store I am in or what website I am on, and *if* someone else attempts to use my credit info to make a fraudulent purchase in a different store or on a different website, they can block it because they know it isn’t me…
I feel *so* much safer…
Orwell Chuckles from the Great Beyond
Australian Government Claims That Facial Recognition Systems Increase Privacy…
And as a side note:
"War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength"
would expect nothing less from the losers of the emu war
What governments really need are better farce recognition systems. Fortunately, there is a large pool of experts available for this, should they be interested.
Re: Response to: orbitalinsertion on Oct 12th, 2017 @ 12:28pm
^^Comment of the week 🙂 🙂 🙂
Let me translate the Aussie slang
Aussie: “These systems”
English: “Recording your face in public”
Aussie: “play an important role in”
English “kind of sort of (and do not)”
Aussie: “preventing identity crime.”
English: “stop criminals impersonating you.”
Aussie: “Identity crime”
English: “Impersonations that happen”
Aussie: “is also a threat to privacy”
English: “are illegal and feel bad”
Aussie: “when it involves the theft or assumption of the identity of an individual.”
English: “Period.”
(Here in Australia we say “Full stop.”)
Hello. I. am. an. Australian. I…click…feel. Much. Safer…whir…buzz.
“Oh crap, his thought routines are starting to go on the fritz.”
CLANG! WALLOP!
My. government. cares. for. us. and. we. are. privileged…zzt…crackle…that. they. care…does not compute…does not compute…whir…crackle…grind…destroy, destroy…
Doublespeak: “promote privacy by strengthening the integrity and security of Australia’s identity infrastructure”
So out of the supposedly ‘free’ nations, where did the invasion of privacy and removal of freedom start? Oh, wasn’t it here in the good ol’ US of A? And as is typical, all the rest of the supposedly ‘free’ nations jumped straight on to the same wagon, removing everything from everyone that these nations are supposed to stand for, that are supposed to make us stand apart from the likes of Russia, China, N.Korea. Seems something is now amiss!
Re: Re:
Pretty sure France and Britain lead the way. Years ahead of the States