Activists turn facial recognition tools against the pOn

One man has started researching how to build a facial recognition product that could defeat officers’ attempts to shield their identity. He said he was motivated to do this because the police had tear-gassed him during a midday protest in June.

Activists around the world are turning the process around and developing tools that can unmask law enforcement in cases of misconduct. This is becoming a threat to law enforcement, but privacy is a two-way street. Unless you keep the people’s privacy, how do you expect them to keep yours?

Unfortunately, you could get arrested for making something like this. Law enforcement arrested Colin Cheung for creating a similar thing. It has become relatively easy to build facial recognition tools thanks to off-the-shelf image recognition software that has been made available in recent years. This is great, but also very dangerous.

In my opinion, these activists shouldn’t be arrested for doing the same things the police are often doing to them. One possible negative outcome is that this technology falls into the hands of criminals and people with bad intentions who could misuse it to steal identities and more. One of the positive outcome is that the activists can finally get the justice they deserve.