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The imminent death of anonymity

The "Freiheit Statt Anxiety" action group protests against increasing surveillance measures in Berlin. But a lot indicates that people want the monitoring.




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

The future is getting closer. Artificial intelligence is slowly but surely creeping into our time. 1. August began a controversial pilot monitoring project with biometric facial recognition as a new monitoring method at the Südkreuz metro and railway station in Berlin. The first project of this type was carried out in the town of Mainz railway station a few years back. It is the German Minister of the Interior, Thomas de Maizière, who, together with Deutsche Bahn and the Bundespolizei, is behind the measure.

300 volunteers signed up as test subjects in the mentioned surveillance research. These were lured with gift cards of 25 euros from the e-commerce giant Amazon. Using transponders [electronic devices of their own frequency, ed.] And iBeacons (bluetooth sensors) that the test subjects carry on the body, information is transmitted in the 10 meter radius where data such as speed, temperature and slope relative to the ground are transmitted. measured.

Be at the forefront. The six-month test will examine whether it is possible to automatically recognize people from a crowd whose participants' faces have been digitally stored in advance. The goal is to discover people that today or in the future may pose a potential danger to society. With this technique, it will be possible to reveal crimes or danger situations before they occur, according to the Bundespolizei, which promises that the information from the investigation will be deleted after one year. Three special cameras have been installed. They cover two zones in the entrance and exit area of ​​the metro station as well as an escalator leading down to the building's entrance hall. In order for people who do not want to be filmed to avoid the cameras, the area that is monitored is marked with blue and white stripes on the ground. Several policemen take part in the action to try out different behavior and movement patterns.

Opponents of the project have been on the barricades: The "Freedom Instead of Anxiety" Action Group protested the monitoring initiative with an appeal in late November. The activists point out that the project can cause not only terrorists to be scanned, but that the method will necessarily cause many other people to come in unwanted spotlight: subway snipers, graffiti taggers, outlaws, beggars and ordinary people who are in various (emergency) situations. Or people who just take a lap around town.

Fundamental rights at risk. After the facial recognition test has been completed, it will no longer be possible to escape surveillance unless those who wish it relinquish their freedom of movement, critics argue. In addition, the test lacks specific cause and purpose associations with regard to the data collected, they believe. From the authorities' point of view, it is planned that video technology will be able to detect and report potential danger situations as well as suspicious objects – for example, abandoned bags / suitcases or pickpockets with their typical patterns of movement. Civil rights defenders and several representatives of privacy and data protection are now protesting: Responsible spokeswoman for privacy in Berlin Maja Smoltczyk states to the Berlin broadcast RBB that biometric surveillance not only observes people, but also can identify individuals. This represents an extremely large encroachment on human rights. This is primarily a matter of the right (under the German Constitution) to self-determination, which, among other things, involves being able to move freely and anonymously in the public without being observed. In addition, it is questionable that through the monitoring technique it will be possible to exercise a scathing social control over people.

Extreme precision. Digitalcourage, a data protection organization, points out that the transponders attached to the test subjects' body collect far more information than police and government are willing to admit. The Ministry rejects the claim. The president of the German Bar Association, Ulrich Schellenberg, warns that an all-encompassing face recognition in public places would mean a huge encroachment on people's fundamental rights – according to him, there is no basis for law enforcement. Schellenberg calls for a broad and thorough social debate on the limits of security technology. Rather than constantly expanding and improving the technical surveillance capabilities, it will be more efficient to optimize the practical working conditions for the police, he believes.

The method will necessarily lead to subway snipers, graffiti taggers, outlaws, beggars and ordinary people who are in various (emergency) situations come in the authorities spotlight. 

Digitalcourage has conducted studies that have shown that video / digital surveillance does not necessarily lead to less crime. Of course, not all aspects of such research are negative, but when it comes to security research, it is clear that economic interests are in focus, Baum believes as the Ny Tid meeting in Berlin. By combining camera footage from different angles, the police are now able to create a three-dimensional digitized face recognition profile of people, where the digital head can be rotated 360 degrees. This means that a high-precision identification can take place. The goal is to be able to identify people by using Youtube or other videos circulating on the web.

Orwell salutes. According to Baum, the government's project has so far been successful. A recent survey on video surveillance conducted by a German newspaper recently showed that 35 percent of the population were against surveillance, while 65 percent were against. After the newspaper article was published, new results showed 10% and 90% respectively. However, Baum believes that this is a question of attitude manipulation on the part of the newspapers / media. The survey methods are deficient and make use of an overly limited audience with regard to age, gender and social affiliation.

Another contentious research that is underway is the EU INDECT project, which started in 2009. The main goal of the project is to develop a central information hub where monitoring data from a variety of sources using automated computers are linked and can look for possible "dangers" and "deviant behavior. »Among people. A characteristic part of the research technique consists of video surveillance of public spaces. Computers, with the help of images from cameras and flying drones, automatically recognize people's "unusual behavior" and thus contribute to the fight against crime. Collected data should be directly linked to data from social networks / media and chat forums. In addition, personal information from social networks and mobile phone data should be connected to the node.

The ultimate goal of the project is to create a waterproof network of surveillance where the EU's external borders become invincible. Ships, planes, drones and land vessels are connected using digital video surveillance and able to recognize people in seconds. The information is shared with the authorities of other countries in no time. All refugees arriving in Europe must be digitally stored with biometric data. In 2010, the German parliament decided that all passports should be labeled with biometric targets that involve face recognition. My old German travel pass expires in 2020. Time to look in the mirror.

The next protest action by Freedom instead of Anxiety will take place in connection with the Munich Security Conference in 2018.

If you want to support the protest against total digital surveillance, it is possible to do so here: https://www.aktion-freiheitstattangst.org/cgi-bin/forms/spenden.

Hans-Georg Kohler
Hans-Georg Kohler
Kohler is a regular reviewer for Ny Tid. Artist.

See the editor's blog on twitter/X

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