Really? How Did You Know that?

Every once and a while, I like to remind everybody that you cannot always believe your eyes, virtually nothing that you do involving any form of electronic communications tool is private, and if you live anywhere where cameras are installed, facial recognition software goes well beyond simply identifying you.

For example, in my May 24^th blog, I Have Absolute Proof!, I delve into the rapidly evolving world of fake audio-videos, where very credible images of real people are digitally manipulated, with genuine-sounding words from the speaker carefully remastered and reworked. As artificial intelligence – very accessible to the world's sophisticated intelligence agencies – is applied to cataloged videos and voice recordings, you can get Barak Obama to admin "on camera" that he was born in Kenya, Donald Trump to tell you he lusts after his elder daughter and Robert Mueller to explain why his entire effort is indeed a "fake news witch hunt."

The resulting images are incredibly powerful, even they are entirely false and completely manufactured. But give a conspiracy theorist Web access to the right video... and try and convince him or her that this was a manufactured and very false product. Give that same conspiracy theorist a video that contradicts his/her view, and watch them label that as "fake."

With a GPS chip in your very own smart phone, police departments can track everywhere you have been, as long as that phone was turned on. It may require a warrant now, but they can check alibis easily. They can aggregate your financial data, medical records, driving record, any form of digital information transmitted across phone lines or the Web or through mobile cell towers. They know what is in your texts, emails and on your social media. They can add facial recognition camera images to place you anywhere a linked camera has photographed your face. Want more? See my May 4^th blog, We Know What You Did Last Summer… and Every Day of Your Life, for the nasty details.

Artificial intelligence – using super-high-speed computers with massive data storage capacity – is capable of taking all of that massive private information and interpreting nuances and creating inferences that are downright scary. AI also "learns" as it goes, perhaps generating more intrusive analysis without anyone instructing the computer to do so. Personal "profiles" are easily created to categorize who you are, what your political beliefs are, what you feel … penetrating fleeting moments in your life to generate detailed "assumptions" about who you are. State agencies, credit agencies, marketers and other folks who really have no business with that information will develop profiles on you to assess risks, seek vulnerabilities and prepare manipulative messages based on your behavior.

There are digital billboards that can assess age, race and general appearance as you pass by... to change their messaging to appeal to you. As the software develops more, they will know it's you with even more tailored messages. Oh yeah! And if you think that's bad, try this little technology in China that just might (not) terrify you.

The July 4^th Los Angeles Times explains: "When facial recognition cameras were installed at a century-old high school here in eastern China, students got in and out of campus, picked up lunch, borrowed books and even bought drinks from a vending machine just by peering into the cameras... No more worrying about forgetting to carry your ID card.

"But in March, the cameras appeared in some classrooms — and they did a lot more than just identify students and take attendance... Using the latest artificial intelligence software, the devices tracked students’ behavior and read their facial expressions, grouping each face into one of seven emotions: anger, fear, disgust, surprise, happiness, sadness and what was labeled as neutral... Think of it as a little glimpse of the future.

"While American schools, as well as students and parents, are worrying about the increased emphasis on standardized tests — and the loss of classroom freedom that comes with “teaching to the test” — China has carried things to a whole new level.

"Here, the surveillance cameras took the data on individual facial expressions and used that information to create a running 'score' on each student and class. If a score reached a predetermined point, the system triggered an alert. Teachers were expected to take action: to talk to a student perceived to be disengaged, for example, or overly moody.

"School administrators reckoned the data could provide feedback for teachers as well, about their lectures and classroom management, though they spoke of no immediate plans to use those details as part of their evaluations.

"Most students came to hate the constant monitoring — and the consequences that followed when the machines reported scores suggesting individuals or entire classes weren’t paying attention.

Some students went so far as to figure out how to game the system by feigning what the cameras’ designers wanted to see... 'If you feel angry, you need to control yourself,' said Zhu Juntao, 17, using his two forefingers to press up the ends of his mouth, as if smiling. He says he was never called out by a teacher, but others were." How could such software possible be used the wrong way? What could possibly go wrong, go wrong, go wrong, go wrong, go wrong...???

I'm Peter Dekom, and even George Orwell could not have possibly envisioned this level of personal intrusion by the state!!