Sci-fi surveillance: Europe's secretive push into biometric technology

EU science funding is being spent on developing new tools for policing and security. But who decides how far we need to submit to artificial intelligence?

Patrick Breyer didn’t expect to have to take the European commission to court. The softly spoken German MEP was startled when in July 2019 he read about a new technology to detect from facial “micro-expressions” when somebody is lying while answering questions.

Even more startling was that the EU was funding research into this virtual mindreader through a project called iBorderCtrl, for potential use in policing Europe’s borders. In the article that Breyer read, a reporter described taking a test on the border between Serbia and Hungary. She told the truth, but the AI border guard said she had lied.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/10/sci-fi-surveillance-europes-secretive-push-into-biometric-technology

#Europe #EU #biometric #AI #surveillance

At Dubai airport, travelers’ eyes become their passports

Dubai’s airport, the world’s busiest for international travel, can already feel surreal, with its cavernous duty-free stores, artificial palm trees, gleaming terminals, water cascades and near-Arctic levels of air conditioning.

Now, the key east-west transit hub is rolling out another addition from the realm of science fiction — an iris-scanner that verifies one’s identity and eliminates the need for any human interaction when entering or leaving the country.

It’s the latest artificial intelligence program the United Arab Emirates has launched amid the surging coronavirus pandemic, contact-less technology the government promotes as helping to stem the spread of the virus. But the efforts also have renewed questions about mass surveillance in the federation of seven sheikhdoms, which experts believe has among the highest per capita concentrations of surveillance cameras in the world.

Dubai’s airport started offering the program to all passengers last month. On Sunday, travelers stepped up to an iris scanner after checking in, gave it a good look and breezed through passport control within seconds. Gone were the days of paper tickets or unwieldy phone apps.

https://apnews.com/article/travel-dubai-united-arab-emirates-coronavirus-pandemic-artificial-intelligence-4c8f2fb1f62df394e29e8365b3bd105e

#dubai #biometric #privacy

Mexico moves to require biometric data from cellphone users

Activists and opposition figure are crying foul after Mexico's Senate passed legislation to require cellphone companies to gather customers' biometric data, like fingerprints or eye scans

Activists and opposition figures cried foul Wednesday after Mexico’s Senate passed legislation to require cellphone companies to gather customers’ identification and biometric data, like fingerprints or eye scans.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s Morena party supported the bill, saying it is needed to fight crimes like extortion and kidnapping that frequently involve the use of cellphones.

The legislation, which was already passed by the Chamber of Deputies, would give cell companies two years to collect the data and make it available to the government.

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/mexico-moves-require-biometric-data-cellphone-users-77078714

#mexico #biometric #cellphone #privacy #surveillance

With the Kremlin’s blessing, Russian companies embrace biometric ambitions

Between “pay with your face” programs in supermarkets and facial recognition cameras in the metro, Russians are adjusting to a new reality.

On a busy Friday afternoon at a supermarket in Moscow, customers were waiting in line to pay for their groceries. Most planned to use credit cards or cash, unaware that they had a new option: to pay by simply looking at the camera.

In March, X5, Russia’s biggest food retailer, began testing the “Pay with Your Face” program in around 170 stores in the capital. Developed in partnership with Visa and Sberbank, Russia’s biggest bank, the program is open to Sberbank cardholders — as many as 50 million people — with 400,000 currently using it, according to Sberbank. It works via a high-resolution 3D camera and confirms an individual’s identity by scanning 200 facial points and taking “into account a person’s height and changes in appearance,” according to X5. This biometric data is then transmitted via “highly secure, encrypted channels” back to Sberbank.

X5, which has a market capitalization of over $8.6 billion and is listed on the London Stock Exchange, first began incorporating biometric payments technology into self-service checkout terminals back in 2019. After initial tests, it increased the number of terminals last year and, this year, is planning to install the systems in at least 6,000 devices in 1,500 stores across Russia. While other banks and retailers have experimented with this technology in the past — including the Azbuka Vkusa supermarket chain, which introduced biometric payments in 2019 — this is the biggest pilot in Russia to date that relies on biometric tech alone.

https://restofworld.org/2021/with-the-kremlins-blessing-russian-companies-embrace-biometric-ambitions/

#Russia #biometric #privacy

Hacking the Samsung Galaxy S8 Irisscanner

Mobile vendors have established fingerprints as a biometric feature to unlock smartphones. Now they turn to iris recognition, as do hackers. This video demonstrates how to circumvent the iris recognition of the Samsung Galaxy S8 flagship phone only using basic tools.

https://media.ccc.de/v/biometrie-s8-iris-en

#ccc #biometric #unlock #smartphones #irisrecognition #irisscanner #video
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_FR
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_EN
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_DE
📡@BlackBox_Archiv
📡@NoGoolag

Users in Texas, Illinois can no longer use certain filters on Instagram and Facebook

Fun social media filters are now banned in Texas and Illinois. Meta turned off AR #filters in the two states after they accused the company of misusing #facial #recognition technology.

Some filters are still available on apps like #Facebook and #Instagram, but the filters that use facial recognition are now gone, thanks to new state laws.

#Texas accused #Meta of violating #privacy rights through its technology.

In #Illinois, a class-action #lawsuit that restricted the use of #biometric data was settled.

Texas has a similar case pending.

However, Meta doesn’t believe that its technology violates facial recognition laws in Illinois and Texas.

Meta said it plans to roll out an opt-in system that would explain how its technology works and continue offering filters that map out users’ faces.

via www.ksby.com



> Meta doesn’t believe that its technology violates facial recognition laws in Illinois and Texas

Hookers believe they are virgins and politicians believe they are honest men who are benevolent towards their people

🇳🇿 NZ police illegally collecting biometric data from Māori in the Wairarapa region, new investigation suggests

New Zealand police forces are unlawfully taking, storing, and using people’s private biometric information according to a joint investigation by the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC).

Now, the privacy commissioner confirmed they had issued a compliance notice to the police force to stop collecting duplicate photographs and biometric prints from young people in 2020. Photos were kept on devices as well as databases.

🔗 Article
#biometric #fingerprints #police #newzealand

Documenting the rise of facial recognition in the UK
https://invidious.snopyta.org/watch?v=bX-Yxy1ESAQ&local=true

Facial recognition surveillance turns us into walking ID cards, and treats members of the public like suspects in a high-tech police line up.

Our new detailed report, Biometric Britain: The Expansion of Facial Recognition Surveillance, lays out how police, retailers, tech companies and even some schools are investing huge sums of money into this intrusive technology.

#UK #BigBrother #FacialRecognition #Surveillance #biometric #BigBrotherWatchUK

Israeli Occupation: How Microsoft, IBM, Cisco and Dell Enable Surveillance and Control in Palestine – June 2023

In September, Israel installed an AI-powered gun at a military checkpoint in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron. Now, that same technology has been deployed at the entrance of the Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem. Across occupied East Jerusalem, you can find surveillance cameras strategically placed on street corners. And throughout the West Bank, Palestinians’ encounters with Israeli soldiers often include not only violence but face-scanning apps designed to capture their personal data

Who Profits, an Israeli research center documenting the private sector’s links to Israeli occupation, released a report in May on multinational tech companies’ role in facilitating Israel’s human rights violations. The impact of each company ranges, with some overseeing a major project while others provide equipment to a system already in place.

#Apartheid #Technology #biometric #IBM #Cisco #Microsoft #Dell #AI

Nigerians raise eyebrows as CBN tells banks to require social media accounts for KYC | Biometric Update –

There have been mixed reactions by concerned parties in Nigeria following a directive by the country’s Central Bank (CBN) for all financial institutions under its regulatory purview to collect the social media accounts of users as part of Know Your Customer (KYC) processes for account opening.

The directive is contained in new customer due diligence regulations issued by the CBN last month :
https://www.cbn.gov.ng/Out/2023/FPRD/CBN%20Customer%20Due%20diligence%20Reg.%202023-combined.pdf

#Nigeria #biometric

Manufacturing Bipartisan Consent For #Biometric #Surveillance

Joining me once again today is TLAV writer and researcher, and founder/editor of Unlimited Hangout, Whitney Webb, here to discuss the biometric surveillance network being built around democrat and republican alike, while they all squabble about manufactured distractions and situations designed to manufacture bipartisan consent. She explains how this is connected to the push for global governance, the digital #ID, and even Israel and their infamous #unit8200. 

https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/whitney-webb-interview-4-17-24/

https://rumble.com/v4q1cdb

https://unlimitedhangout.com/2024/02/investigative-reports/manufacturing-consent-the-border-fiasco-and-the-smart-wall/


@TLAVagabond @UnlimitedHangout