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239

‘Adversarial clothing’: are garments designed to confuse facial recognition systems about to go mainstream? (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 2 weeks ago by schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de to c/privacy@lemmy.ca

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[–] A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip 53 points 2 weeks ago (11 children)

But does it work?

He emphasised that because surveillance systems are so powerful, no design can guarantee security from detection, but said “the added value of fashion is to spread awareness and help propagate public discourse”.

Preuß said his designs used large-scale prints, asymmetrical cuts and streetwear-inspired silhouettes to confuse facial recognition algorithms. The company said its Urban Ghost coat integrates LEDs into the hood that emit infrared light to dazzle night-vision surveillance cameras.

Preuß, who co-founded his company after reading about the whistleblower Edward Snowden’s revelations about US surveillance in the Guardian, said his designs played with the fact that “facial recognition systems freak out when they see multiple faces at once”.

“Our patterns play with that chaos, confuse algorithms and make it way harder to pin you down,” he said.

Bell, however, said “none of these products are tried and tested, and a lot of these surveillance technologies can deal with a little resistance … [but] even if the designs don’t necessarily work perfectly, fashion is also a visible sign of resistance.

Still not sure.

[–] thehermet@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Thing is, I feel like having bright dazzling lights on your hoodie just fingerprints you even more, no?

Maybe if you use it strategically it could help, but I wouldn’t be sold on that feature

[–] definitemaybe@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 week ago

I don't think that's a problem, but I suppose it depends on your goals. Facial recognition in low-light conditions is already hard enough of a problem that they, presumably, are not building IR-light-clothing detection into their algorithms. And if IR-blasting clothing becomes commonplace enough that they start working on it, then it's also no longer distinctive. So, if the goal is to defeat passive surveillance of your movements, this should be highly effective.

If a human reviews the footage, then none of this likely matters anyway, since they'll be able to identify other identifying features about you—but that's a scalability problem. You'd need to have done something very "interesting" to be worth investing the time into tracking across hundreds of video feeds through a surveillance network.

If your goal is to get away with a crime or actively resist detection while protesting, then this is (obviously) a bad idea to wear this. You should instead choose something as non-descript as possible, like all black, long sleeves, gloves, face mask, and tinted goggles. But you can't just walk around in public like that, in general.

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