Hong Kong Protestors Are Using Pocket Lasers To Fool Govt's Facial Recognition Cameras
At the start of June, an estimated 1 million people have been protesting on the streets of Hong Kong against a bill that would allow extraditions to China. The government has been using surveillance tech to crack down and now people are fighting back
Since the start of June, an estimated 1 million people have been protesting on the streets of Hong Kong against a bill that would allow extraditions to China.
The government has been using surveillance tech in order to crack down, and now people are fighting back.
Police and security forces, as well as surveillance cameras at many important government buildings, use facial recognition technology to identify protesters in order to arrest them. People have attempted to avoid this before by wearing face masks and opening up umbrellas. But both of those methods involve carrying objects that are easily visible on your person. So instead they've turned to other tactics.
Protesters are now using lasers to thwart cameras.
According to reports, protesters on the streets of Hong Kong are shining high-powered lasers directly at surveillance cameras in an attempt to confuse their facial recognition systems. The bright lights from this falling directly on camera sensors stop them from accurately grabbing faces, thereby leaving the facial recognition tech no data to compare and find people.
Hong Kong protestors are on another level. Here they¡¯re using lasers to avoid facial recognition cameras. A cyber war against Chinese artificial intelligence. pic.twitter.com/t1hIczr5Go
¡ª Alessandra (@alessabocchi) July 31, 2019
Inadvertently, it also makes the protests look like a rave, minus the bumping music, drugs, and black light.
It brings to mind Tahrir Square in Egypt, in 2013. When a military chopper flew overhead during celebrations after President Mohammed Morsi was overthrown, pretty much the entire crowd were shining their lasers on it. The reason they all had one though, was because they were previously using them during nighttime protests to check nearby buildings for things like snipers.
Egyptian protestors using lasers on military choppers, beautiful pic.twitter.com/eVmxku73BB
¡ª Guy Hottel ? (@Alien_Ancap) July 31, 2019
The people of Hong Kong are protesting a bill being pushed through the government that would give them the ability to move suspected criminals to any jurisdiction, regardless of any extradition agreement in place.
Effectively, it means Hong Kong can extradite people to mainland China. For one, people worried about how that would blur the lines between their legal systems, since they prefer to Hong Kong's autonomy. The second talking point though is that it would make it easier for the notoriously intolerant Chinese government to crack down on dissidents and activists.
In fact, the very presence of facial recognition-powered surveillance in Hong Kong is enough for protesters to point out that China's reach is already strengthening, something they fear.
