Police Say They Use Facial Recognition Despite Bans
Yes,  (Duh, wouldn&#x27;t you?) I&#x27;ve said this before so I apologize in advance for repeating myself.  Whether we like it or not ubiquitous surveillance is the new order of the day.
You cannot put the technological genie back in the bottle.  You can&#x27;t enforce rules against using it without using it.  We&#x27;re stuck with what I call the &quot;Tyranny of Mrs. Grundy&quot;[1].<p>The primary result is that we should all work to make a <i>humane tyranny</i> (if such a thing is even possible; it sure sounds like an oxymoron, doesn&#x27;t it?)<p>Yes, your privacy is a social fiction, but in return, we can stop almost all crime.<p>Here&#x27;s a not-entirely-hypothetical thought experiment for you:  would you allow your life to be recorded and made public if it would prevent a child from being abducted?<p>I&#x27;m not a particularly good person (I do my best) and I like my privacy, but I think I would have to take that bargain.  If it would prevent a kid from getting kidnapped, or someone getting raped, or murdered, or even just getting hit by a hit-and-run driver, that I would agree to have my life JenniCam&#x27;d[2].  The fact is, it&#x27;s already happening.  E.g. your smart phone uploads your location data which is then sold off.  Your smart TV sends pictures of the screen to the cloud.  Your smart router listens to your conversations.  Your smart electricity meter sends telemetry.  Smart streetlights know where the cars are, smart cars know where the people are (a fleet of networked self-driving cars (auto-autos) is a ubiquitous surveillance system.)  Etc.<p>Imagine all the criminals who, when Snowden dropped his bombshell, only just then realized that the NSA <i>already had</i> all their dirty laundry.<p>[1] &quot;Mrs Grundy is a figurative name for an extremely conventional or priggish person, a personification of the tyranny of conventional propriety. A tendency to be overly fearful of what others might think is sometimes referred to as <i>grundyism</i>.&quot; <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Mrs._Grundy" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Mrs._Grundy</a>  (&quot;Grundiocracy&quot;?  Ew.)<p>[2]<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;JenniCam" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;JenniCam</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Lifecasting_(video_stream)" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Lifecasting_(video_stream)</a>