Elle Reeve of VICE NEWS headed to China to investigate the rise of facial recognition technology. What she found out is something we all need to start worrying about even here in America.
It seems China is fine having HD cameras pointed at them in their bedrooms and living rooms 24/7 (smart TVs and webcams). They pay hundreds of dollars for the “privilege” of having some recording device listen to their every word (Amazon Echo). I find the entire prospects regarding privacy very depressing. It will be like Minority Report eventually, but probably much worse. And that’s assuming evil governments don’t come into power here in the West. Things are not looking too promising.
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The scary thing is it will just get worse and worse and worse as technology advances. The image quality will become four or 8K resolution as standard on everything eventually. There will be cameras tracking everyone’s movement the moment they leave their house. Everyone’s voices and conversations will be recorded no matter where they are, even in parks or private places. China has no limits. There are no safeguards, accountability, or personal liberties there.
The entire country will become a mass surveillance state. It will spread to other countries under the guise of national security, and it will be exploited and misused in countless ways (giant data breaches are an almost weekly occurrence now). And what’s worse is the vast majority of people don’t care; in fact, they encourage it.
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I’ll be honest; I find this whole thing disgusting. The Chinese handed whatever freedom and privacy they had to these tech giants who said they were trying to keep them ‘safe.’ Even if that may have been the case, now your actions are funneled into a pathway where all you can do is be a robot meant to function how other people tell you, too — people whom you don’t know.
I can’t believe that technology is starting to be implemented in other places as well when instead, they could be asking why people commit crimes in the first place. It’s nearly 2020; the answers should be obvious.
I can’t believe I live on the same planet as you guys. I feel sorry for you.
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