DHS is turning malls and stores into giant facial recognition spy centers

MassPrivateI

Malls and retailers across America, are working with DHS to install facial recognition cameras and license plate readers everywhere. DHS is working with malls and retailers to identify people with criminal records and scan their license plates to see if a shopper is on DHS’s terrorist watch list.

People would be outraged if they knew how many businesses use facial recognition

Alvaro Bedoya, the executive director of Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy & Technology, warns.

“People would be outraged if they knew how facial recognition” is being developed and promoted, Bedoya says. “Not only because they weren’t told about it, but because there’s nothing they can do about it. When you’re online, everyone has the idea that they’re being tracked. And they also know that there are steps they can take to counter that, like clearing their cookies or installing an ad blocker. But with facial recognition, the tracker is your face. There’s no way to easily block the technology”

Mastercard’s implementation of facial recognition requiring a user to blink appears to be a novel solution to prevent others from taking a picture of a user. The effectiveness of its implementation is yet to stand the test of time, however,” he added. David Meyer, VP of product at OneLogin, said that facial recognition offers the potential to finally displace passwords as an authentication technology in enterprises.

“Over the coming years we will see biometrics become more common in the enterprise and facial recognition is the likely core, seeing as cameras are becoming ubiquitous and the recognition software is becoming very reliable. Our customers are already discussing these biometric factors with us and how they can be best applied” Meyer said.

 

Companies like EyeQ, are sugar coating facial biometrics by renaming it a “personalized shopping experience.” EyeQ is already being used by Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores, Fuddruckers and Lubys.

Click here to view EyeQ’s disturbing facial biometric video.

“Regardless of whether you want to be recognized, you can be sure that you have no right of refusal in public, nor in the myriad private spaces that you enter on a daily basis that are owned by someone other than yourself,” Gates says. “You give consent by entering the establishment” Kelly Gates, associate professor in communication and science studies at the University of California said.

Retailers like Saks, Home Depot, Walmart, Macy’s, Giorgio Armani and Benetton are considering or testing facial recognition technology.

Hotels like the Hilton in Texas already use 3VR facial recognition cameras, license plate recognition and advanced motion analytics to identify every guest. According to Hilton’s 3VR case study they’re using at least 130 surveillance cameras to spy on everyone.

AT&T recently, announced they’ll be using drones at every Dallas Cowboy home game. Allegedly to increase to measure cellphone signal strength. That means they’re using spying Wi-Fi detectors that can identify individual users. Would anyone like to bet they’re also equipped with facial recognition cameras?

Soon, nearly every retail store will be equipped with facial recognition cameras.

Malls use license plate readers to spy on shoppers

The Mall of America works with the police to scan your license plate as soon as you enter one of their parking lots! Click here to read a recent story about the Mall of America using license plate readers to identify motorists. Fyi, the Mall of America has scanned more than 2 million vehicles!

The list of malls using license plate readers continues to grow, the Destiny USA Mall, Freehold Raceway Mall,Grapevine Mills Mall, Mall at Short Hills, Simon Property Group, New England Development, are a number of malls that spy on customers. Some malls have begun using Knightscope’s K5 robot that uses license-plate recognition sensors, thermal-imaging and night-vision cameras with a 360-degree view that use microphones to spy on shopper’s conversations. Oh, and lets not forget Knightsscope’s VP of marketing & sales, Stacy Stephens is a former cop.

DHS pays police to patrol shopping mall parking lots

Police in Marion County used a $500,000 DHS grant to buy license plate readers, the grant also funds overtime needed to patrol high traffic areas like schools, parks and malls.

The police run license plate information through law enforcement databases in real time, checking for expired licenses plates, outstanding warrants and the registered sex offender list.

DHS acknowledges license plate readers are spying on us

The excerpts listed below, were taken from page 4 of DHS’s Acquisition of ALPR’s report.

LPR data may be inappropriately shared with other agencies or private entities.

Click here to find out how license plate readers spy on passengers and your social media. Last year, I warned everyone that mall security is being trained by DHS.

Unfortunately, it’s not just malls and stores that are spying on us. Rental car companies are equipping vehicles with cameras and microphones and GPS systems like OnStar. OnStar uses GPS and a microphone to spy on drivers.

We’re being tracked the moment we get behind the wheel

In the near future imagine getting in your vehicle and driving down the street passing countless street lights that spy on your Wi-Fi and social media. As you stop at a traffic intersection, a camera identifies you and your passenger(s) and a license plate reader tracks your location. As you go about your daily routine of going to work or driving to the bank, pharmacy, grocery store, mall, etc., facial recognition cameras and license plate readers track your every movement.

That’s the future of driving, in Police State America.

DHS is making the NKVD, KGB, Stasi and Gestapo look like amateurs.

Oliver Stone warned, Obama “has created… the most massive global security surveillance state that’s ever been seen, way beyond East Germany’s Stasi, way beyond that.”

http://massprivatei.blogspot.com/2016/10/dhs-is-turning-malls-and-stores-into.html