So I had researched it a while ago and don’t recall having found anything effective and non-suspicious to protect from public camera mass survaillence in cities and the like. Is there anything that is a good option for that yet, and if so, could you point me toward it?
You need to own a few copies of face recog software, and practice with face restructuring latex makeup which gives you a new realistic face with a new bone structure.
Change walking gate. Get shoes with small platforms to change height, learn to walk naturally on those.
Change mannerisms.
It’s doable, but a major pain to pull it off.
Like imagine quickly applying the latex makeup, walking in front of your own identical face recognition camera at home, take everything off, rest, repeat, 10 times a day, 300 days a year, for 10 years. Until it is second nature. Now you can rely on this to do serious work.
You have to create a new person, basically. Assuming you practiced well and tested everything against real software, you can now be a different person for some hours in a reliable way. Once your secondary identity is exposed you’ll need a new tertiary identity. Never do anythiny fishy as your base identity.
The real solution is political, like everyone else has said. Because you won’t be able to fool the system casually without a massive effort and practice, practice, practice on your own property first, before you rely on this for real work in the wild.
It depends on the surveillance coverage. If it’s widespread enough, they can track you between your departure and arrival locations. You’d also need two more disguises for both entering and exiting.
And of course, if you have a cell phone on you that pings anything, the jig is up.
I asked Andi
Recent advances in facial recognition technology have sparked development of various counter-surveillance clothing and accessories. These anti-surveillance methods fall into several key categories:
Physical Alterations and Clothing
- Patterned clothing with complex designs that confuse facial recognition algorithms[1]
- Reflective materials that bounce back infrared light used by security cameras[1:1]
- Special scarves and hoodies designed to break up facial features[1:2]
- The “Camera Shy Hoodie” with embedded IR LEDs that overexpose security camera footage[2]
- Cap_Able brand clothing with patterns designed to deceive recognition systems[3]
Technical Solutions
- Infrared LED glasses that blind facial recognition cameras while remaining invisible to human eyes[1:3]
- Anti-surveillance devices that emit signals to interfere with camera sensors[1:4]
- Reflectacles privacy eyewear that blocks IR cameras[4]
Professional Applications
- Small reflective dot stickers used for motion tracking and high-speed camera detection[5]
- Camera obscura techniques used by photographers and artists[6]
Law Enforcement Concerns
- Police forces are expanding use of facial recognition vans and technology[7][8]
- Civil liberties groups argue the technology shows racial bias and privacy concerns[9]
- West Yorkshire’s Crime Commissioner states that facial recognition data “will not be stored”[7:1]
Sources:
Luxand - How to Fool and Avoid Facial Recognition in Public Places ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
Maker Faire Rome - Fabric to deceive facial recognition systems ↩︎
BBC - ‘Facial recognition can make mistakes, it’s not a decision-maker’ ↩︎ ↩︎
Facebook - Digital face recognition camera van in Albany Rd ↩︎
Yahoo/Telegraph - Facial recognition cameras at Notting Hill Carnival ‘are racially biased’ ↩︎
As an unrelated question, why do you use Andi instead of other privacy centric AI such as Duck.ai, Lumo, Brave AI, etc? I’m not familiar with Andi so I’m curious.
Because Andi is until now the most privacy centric and reliable one of all I’ve tested since almost 3 years, it was the first ever search AI on the market, 5 Years ago, former called Lazyweb.ai, years before. Own LLM not biased by big companies. Developed by a small startup of 2 devs.
…We’re a small team of two founders (Angela and Jed) and some friends. We’re on a mission to unbreak the Internet and save the world from spam, misinformation and ad tech.
Search is broken because of misinformation, SEO spam and ads, and surveillance capitalism. It hasn’t changed in 20 years. Things are getting worse. The rise of GPT-based chatbots that confidently generate accurate-sounding “BS” with made-up sources is driving misinformation through the roof.
Horse mask should work
Gorilla mask. Or one of those 6 foot tall bunny costumes. Or uncle sam ala carnivals a hundred years back.
There is no effective technical solution for political problems. If you find one, it will soon be outlawed or rendered ineffective (eg if you wear mask and sunglasses, prepare to be harassed by law enforcement). Lobbying to stop unconstrained surveillance is the only option.
If there is no other option than lobbying then there is no real option. The public has rarely ever effectively lobbied for their interests.
I wouldn’t be so pessimistic. When more people personally experience survelliance abuse, things will get interesting.
Artillery strikes on the data centers
May I suggest revolution?
Came here to suggest that. We need to gather sentiment
Are there any AES countries without mass surveillance though? Honest quesion.
Revolution doesn’t have to recreate the currently existing systems in other parts of the world. Every social order was brand new at some point.
While I agree, it seems a little ironic given your username
…No? Communism is the brand new social order I’m talking about that is yet to come about.
IR blocking sunglasses are the simplest and most practical solution.
Facial recognition systems compare the distance ratios between your eyes and nose primarily. Hiding your eyes is very effective towards fucking that up. A mask alone is typically not enough.
Sunglasses alone are not enough either. Modern face recognition tech is way better than just distance ratios
mask with dark sunglasses or a ski mask with dark sunglasses
Covid masks can be effective, and it’s not as suspicious as asymmetrical makeup or a reflective hoodie. But no, there’s no good way to avoid being photographed in public.
I read somewhere they they can identify you typically with about 35% of your face.
Mask and sunglasses?
Yeah, a high-res image giving the position of ears, eyes, and nose is damning.
ears and eyes alone give you a shocking amount of identifyability. We’re getting real fucking close to the CSI levels of facial identification.
Who knew my sensory issues having ass was relatively safe all along between my noise cancelling over ears, sunglasses and COVID masks
You’ll still have to be careful they’re targeting people with sensory issues and neurodivergence next.
I’m not American, but yeah I’m staying vigilant
I hope to hell we’re not infectious, but I worry for everyone, everywhere, eventually. I’m afraid we’re just ahead of the curve.
glasses and face masks it is then
Mask, sunglasses (and glasses that block IR), slight deviations in movement patterns, and GETTING OUT OF THE CITY.
A hammer?
Lemon juice? /s
context, for the unaware
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Greater_Pittsburgh_bank_robberies
I’ve never seen an explanation as to why the guy thought that the lemon juice would work. Did someone tell it to him that or did he come up with it himself.
Younger me recalls (incorrectly) that they used lemon juice on the film in the first Star Wars movie, as a special effect to blur the base of the land speeder so it appeared to be hovering. They actually used vaseline, smeared on the lens, not the film, plus had mirrors under the vehicle too. I had told this lemon juice ‘fact’ to several people before someone finally corrected me.
My memory was wrong and I wonder how I came to that conclusion. Maybe I watched a ‘behind the scenes’ show on how they did the special effects, and they said it wrong. Maybe it was a show that presented the use of lemon juice in some other tangentially related special effect and I mixed the two up. Maybe I had read an article about using lemon juice to distort picture film in the developing process.
I wonder if that bank robber did the same mistake but with far worse consequences. The time frame of the robbers mistake was around the same time as my confusion as well.
Thanks for sharing, what an amazing read^^
Don’t forget that when you walk the length of your bones can be measured which can be used to identify you.
Yea, but there is a database of peoples faces matched to their names. There is not a database of their bone lengths to the names. That measurement would be done after you were already under suspicion.
I guess we can all join The Ministry of Silly Walks.
Walk on the front of your foot, the process require you to intentionally concentrate on your gait which causes it to change
Not that you can do it all of the time, but it is a way to defeat gait fingerprinting.
Just as normal sunglasse don’t fool facial recognition systems, modern gait recognition systems can’t be defeated by “just altering how you walk”. You can read more about it on The Hitchhikers Guide to Online Anonymity. There is this research paper.
They link a specific device which can fool some systems, but a bit easier (although more inefficient) is just wearing very loose clothes that cover the movement of your muscles.
Walk without rhythm.
Is that part of gait measurement or separate from it?
That depends on what gait measurement entails to you. I would think so but Wikipedia says that it is just movement analysis.
For surveillance cams:
Cover them up and destroy them with drones.
IR LEDs around your hat or glasses but I believe some cameras can filter out IR.
Yeah, no dice, the better sensors these days don’t have any problem with that. Check out Project Farms recent doorbell camera review. He actually walks up to the doorbell camera with a full on flashlight in the pitch black of night and they still have no problem.
Don’t mind me, just rocking my battery-powered hat
It’s to power the AI obviously 😂
