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Colo. to 'map' faces of drivers
By Julia C. Martinez
Denver Post Capitol Bureau
Wednesday, July 04, 2001 - First it was the photo-radar vans snapping pictures of Denver-area speeders.
Now, some fear Big Brother's roving eye soon will be watching all of Colorado with the arrival of a new European import called "face recognition."
The Department of Motor Vehicles, in an effort to prevent identity theft and driver's license fraud, is buying cameras that will map every driver's facial characteristics like a three-dimensional land chart.
The danger, critics say, is that the technology could eventually be expanded to monitor the comings and goings of ordinary Coloradans.
This week, Tampa, Fla., became the first city in the United States to install similar high-tech security cameras on public streets to scan crowds in the city's nightlife district. Images will be compared against a database of mug shots of people with active warrants.
"There is a danger," said Rep. Matt Smith, a Grand Junction lawmaker and attorney who serves on a statewide task force studying the issue of privacy. "The intended purpose of facial recognition is to help the state prevent the theft of identity. Now the question is, "What will its future use be?'
"There has to be a point where the government doesn't have its nose over every shoulder," he said.
Mug shots compared
Old driver's license photos will be scanned into a computer database using the new technology. Then, starting next July, new mugs will be compared with those on file to make sure people are who they say they are when they go to get, or renew, a Colorado driver's license.
It doesn't matter if you gain 200 pounds and go bald between photographs. Short of plastic surgery, the camera will recognize you.
"Facial recognition deals with spatial details, where a nose is compared with the eyes," said Dorothy Dalquist, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Revenue. "Baldness doesn't count, and weight doesn't either. It's the basic facial structure."
The state legislature authorized the technology during the last session. State officials won't disclose the cost of the system until they meet later this month with officials from Polaroid, one of the companies involved in making the system.
In the beginning, face recognition will be used to try to prevent criminals from obtaining multiple driver licenses under others' names, Dalquist said.
"We know of cases where individuals steal personal information from other people, forge documents and go to six or seven driver license offices getting licenses with their pictures and other people's identities. In theory, they have a legitimate license, but in actuality, they're not who they say they are," Dalquist said. "Now, we will be able to say after the first one, "No, you can't have another one.'"
Or the police could be called in.
"My guess is if we saw something that is an egregious misuse of the system, we might alert law enforcement to that," she said.
The cameras can't prevent the types of fraud that now occur when people make their own driver's licenses using home computers and the Internet. However, as part of the new program, invisible markers will be added to each new license so stores or banks can scan the card to see if it's genuine.
Privacy concerns
The technology has raised concerns about privacy, ethics and government intrusion. Privacy advocates are concerned that a database of photographs could itself spill into the Orwellian realm.
"We all want to catch as many criminals as we possibly can, but we also have to be concerned about the privacy issues," said Sen. Ken Gordon, D-Denver, a member of a state task force set up to craft legislation aimed at protecting privacy. "Information obtained for one purpose is sometimes used for reasons that were not contemplated by people who set up the system to begin with."
Gordon said Colorado already sells driver records to insurance companies for $5 million a year.
"If we're going to create a database of photographs of every driver in Colorado, will it be used only to protect against criminals?" Gordon asked. "Or will it be used for commercial purposes or marketing or to produce books of people's photos. We have to be careful."
Colorado's new system could pave the way for expanded use, say for instance tapping into a criminal database and finding out if someone getting a driver license is a fugitive.
"I'm sure law enforcement would appreciate it sometime in the future," Dalquist said. "Right now, we're not hooking into their data process. We're trying to protect citizens against identity fraud, and businesses, too."
But some say this latest technology could continue to grow into a Tampa-like monitoring system.
Last month, Denver police used low-tech, hand-held video cameras to catch rowdy partygoers celebrating the Colorado Avalanche's Stanley Cup victory.
"We haven't discussed it," said Denver police Sgt. Tony Lombard, "not at this point."
Folks get ready the future is now
Scary stuff. I would think even some of the brain dead left would object to this technology being used to monitor the travel of citizens.
The danger, critics say, is that the technology could eventually be expanded to monitor the comings and goings of ordinary Coloradans
Correct sentence: The danger, critics say, is that the technology will eventually be expanded to monitor the comings and goings of ordinary Coloradans.
pssssst.... paragraphs are our friends.
First it was the photo-radar vans snapping pictures of Denver-area speeders.Now, some fear Big Brother's roving eye soon will be watching all of Colorado with the arrival of a new European import called "face recognition."
The Department of Motor Vehicles, in an effort to prevent identity theft and driver's license fraud, is buying cameras that will map every driver's facial characteristics like a three-dimensional land chart.
The danger, critics say, is that the technology could eventually be expanded to monitor the comings and goings of ordinary Coloradans.
This week, Tampa, Fla., became the first city in the United States to install similar high-tech security cameras on public streets to scan crowds in the city's nightlife district. Images will be compared against a database of mug shots of people with active warrants.
"There is a danger," said Rep. Matt Smith, a Grand Junction lawmaker and attorney who serves on a statewide task force studying the issue of privacy. "The intended purpose of facial recognition is to help the state prevent the theft of identity. Now the question is, "What will its future use be?'
"There has to be a point where the government doesn't have its nose over every shoulder," he said.
Mug shots compared
Old driver's license photos will be scanned into a computer database using the new technology. Then, starting next July, new mugs will be compared with those on file to make sure people are who they say they are when they go to get, or renew, a Colorado driver's license.
It doesn't matter if you gain 200 pounds and go bald between photographs. Short of plastic surgery, the camera will recognize you.
"Facial recognition deals with spatial details, where a nose is compared with the eyes," said Dorothy Dalquist, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Revenue. "Baldness doesn't count, and weight doesn't either. It's the basic facial structure."
The state legislature authorized the technology during the last session. State officials won't disclose the cost of the system until they meet later this month with officials from Polaroid, one of the companies involved in making the system.
In the beginning, face recognition will be used to try to prevent criminals from obtaining multiple driver licenses under others' names, Dalquist said.
"We know of cases where individuals steal personal information from other people, forge documents and go to six or seven driver license offices getting licenses with their pictures and other people's identities. In theory, they have a legitimate license, but in actuality, they're not who they say they are," Dalquist said. "Now, we will be able to say after the first one, "No, you can't have another one.'" Or the police could be called in.
"My guess is if we saw something that is an egregious misuse of the system, we might alert law enforcement to that," she said.
The cameras can't prevent the types of fraud that now occur when people make their own driver's licenses using home computers and the Internet. However, as part of the new program, invisible markers will be added to each new license so stores or banks can scan the card to see if it's genuine.
Privacy concerns
The technology has raised concerns about privacy, ethics and government intrusion. Privacy advocates are concerned that a database of photographs could itself spill into the Orwellian realm.
"We all want to catch as many criminals as we possibly can, but we also have to be concerned about the privacy issues," said Sen. Ken Gordon, D-Denver, a member of a state task force set up to craft legislation aimed at protecting privacy. "Information obtained for one purpose is sometimes used for reasons that were not contemplated by people who set up the system to begin with."
Gordon said Colorado already sells driver records to insurance companies for $5 million a year.
"If we're going to create a database of photographs of every driver in Colorado, will it be used only to protect against criminals?" Gordon asked. "Or will it be used for commercial purposes or marketing or to produce books of people's photos. We have to be careful."
Colorado's new system could pave the way for expanded use, say for instance tapping into a criminal database and finding out if someone getting a driver license is a fugitive.
"I'm sure law enforcement would appreciate it sometime in the future," Dalquist said. "Right now, we're not hooking into their data process. We're trying to protect citizens against identity fraud, and businesses, too."
But some say this latest technology could continue to grow into a Tampa-like monitoring system.
Last month, Denver police used low-tech, hand-held video cameras to catch rowdy partygoers celebrating the Colorado Avalanche's Stanley Cup victory.
"We haven't discussed it," said Denver police Sgt. Tony Lombard, "not at this point."
I guess I will start wearing a mask when I drive.
Wearing a mask ? Look for Colorado to cite you for that, too.
Next thing you know, they'll be putting flouride in the water supply.
Just great, more incentive for women drivers to preen behind the wheel in the morning...
Wearing a mask ? Look for Colorado to cite you for that, too.
Unless your are Patrick Roy.
I guess it's time to pull out my old Groucho Marx "Beagle Puss"
complete with fake glasses, nose, and moustache, to wear while I'm driving around.
Or better yet, maybe a movement for all of us to wear Reagan masks...
That won't work, they will start issuing tickets for that too. I remember a person in the news who used a dummy for evading HOV lanes. The Cameras busted him. If they don't know who you are they will follow you home, you will not see them because it is a network of cameras. Then, they can, according to the SCOTUS place a beacon devise on your car and track you, without a warrant.
Reagan masks. Now that's a good idea .... LOL!
"The intended purpose of facial recognition is to help the state prevent the theft of identity."
"We're trying to protect citizens against identity fraud, and businesses, too."
Always a good excuse.
Of course, if we have a "terrorist threat" and they decide to round up "potential terrorists"
based on various definitions of thoughtcrime, this technology will be useful
for that also.
Remember the Japanese in WWII?
Anyone that thinks it cannot happen here is deluding themselves.
It looks like it is time to begin national privacy rights debate, front and center Mr. Speaker. Before we are de facto subjects of our own monster!
LOL!
Stay away from big cities, especially those in the (gore) blue zone.
Imagine each state you travel through will have a different set of laws that will allow them to do whatever they wish with your destination information. We are no longer presumed innocent and can't be garanteed we are not suspects in other states.
I believe their needs to be some constitutional garantees here that they can't do this! We have a right to be left alone and not followed or investigated or have information collected on us. Someone is bound to not like something we do or the color of our skin or how we stand on an issue and want us out of their way so their agenda can go forward.
I thought for a moment it said, "Colorado to 'map' feces of drivers".
That would have been better!
Between the constant encroachment of our privacy via electronic means, and the push to deprive us of our means of self defense, we are speeding headlong into an oppressive tyrannical government-state, and without a means to defend ourselves.
If you value your life, your possessions, your family, and your freedom, you will HAVE to stand up NOW and passionately for our Second Amendment Rights. Without them, we will be a lost people. Our weapons are the only reason we have not ALREADY been conquered.
I guess we really are creating a different kind of a country here. Where cities monitor their people and those outside the population centers are another class of citizen.
We Need A farm/Truck strike to cut the cities off to let them know, there will be no class division of the peoples.
That would get leaders attention! Try facing the producers you consumers
Our weapons are for one thing! Defence against the government!
Big Brother Police State!
security cameras on public streets to scan crowds in the city's nightlife district. Images will be compared against a database of mug shots of people with active warrants.
Isn't this guilty before proves=n innocent? Kinda like reading everyone's mail to look for criminal activity.
Please learn to format yer html. Here's a good place to start. Now, carry on vermin! ;)
Gore Masks would be better!
A couple of links for anyone that may have missed earlier reports about Florida:
Ybor police cameras go spy-tech
Tampa installs high-tech security cameras to scan crowds for people wanted for arrest
Another privacy matter to be concerned about is HERE
They could use this system to take pictures at the polls before anyone votes and then compare them for voter fraud.
But they won't. That would be an invasion of "voter rights" under the Motor Voter Act and would also disenfranchise legions of Democrat politicians.
Once they saw it was Gore driving they would just go next. I can hear it again... No controlling legal authority! When it works for them it is OK. When it is contrary to their agenda you are audited!
Once again the Republicans move us forward to a police state.
They could track what we're eating...find out who's eating too much fat...
Colorado's version of face matching seems to only be used when applying for a re-newal of you driver's license, not as you are driving. This I can approve of, as identity theft and refugees from the law are a problem and the driver's license is a great way to catch them, without causing harm to our own privacy. I disapprove of watching me as I travel. Colorado seems to have cameras at every intersection these days, and that is bugging me.
I no longer drive and no longer carry a drivers liscense. Have my US Birth Certificate and my Passport. Thats all Ill need to bail from this police state. Stopped driving after the state of California Stole my Truck. Normally when I catch a theive in the act of stealing my truck I can use physical force to stop them. Unfortunately this thief was wearing a police uniform. Since the state stole my automobile, I decided to not PAY THEM to renew my drivers liscense. Have not driven an automobile since. I just hire a driver when I need one. You would not believe how much money you can save by not buying gas, not buying insurance, not buying or leasing an automobile, not paying the state for tags, not paying the state for liscense renewall, not buying new tires, not repairing the automobile, etc. etc.. Anyone who thinks the automobile and the drivers liscense gives them freedom is being brainwashed. The automobile companies spend millions running those great comercials with hendrix screaming 'freedom' in the background. If it were true, they would not need to run those commercials.
Folks get ready the future is now . . . BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU!
Stop whining and just wear a balaclava when you go out driving from now on :-) That's what I would do.
Isn't this guilty before proves=n innocent? Kinda like reading everyone's mail to look for criminal activity.
There's a big difference between taking pictures of people on the street & reading their mail. Reading mail is clearly an invasion of privacy. Some would argue that when you're walking down the street you have no 'reasonable expectation of privacy' when it comes to people (or devices) looking at your face.
Personally, I find the idea of the government spying on us with cameras very distasteful. But I think the arguments against it (the ones based on privacy claims) are very weak. The strongest argument IMO is that the government simply has no business doing this - this is not what I hired them to do.
-bc
There are other alternatives: some that are both more subtle and more forceful about where We The People stand on this issue...
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|
(available at a hardware store near you) |
Gee... I wonder what out friends over at the ACLU make of this.
Gee... I wonder what out friends over at the ACLU make of this.
I'll bet they're against it. They are right about 1/3 of the time, the rest is politically correct lunacy, but the ACLU has done a lot of good (and bad) in the past.
Well, I guess I better put on a Jesus mask while driving in Colorado...lol. Oh man, if this is happening in Colorado....Colorado!....where will it happen next?
There are tag covers that you can put on which will blind the cameras to what your license number is so you can speed throught the red lights without a prob.
Do those same cameras turn off when we drive the speed limit through a green light?
NFW.
I was once the victim of identity theft, and the financial losses were huge.
Fortunately, I was able to determine who did it and the diversion of my mail to hide the thefts was easy to prove.
What I did not expect was that the Postal Inspectors and local police detectives would be so completely uninterested, and never investigated further once I had filed complaints. My firsthand experience was that identity theft was not treated as an important issue even when the case could be easily investigated and proved.
So, when I hear of frightening Big Brother schemes like fingerprinting and biometrically mapping faces of Colorado drivers.... I am highly cynical about claims that fighting indentity theft is sufficient justification for further erosion of our freedoms.
Many DMV's already require Social Security cards, school transcripts, Birth Certificates, Passports, and fingerprints just to get a driver's license... unless you are an illegal alien. Some states actually appear to make it much easier to get a license if you are here illegally.
Every policy decision has costs/risks/benefits, and good public policy should carefully and rationally balance these variables, and reflect the electorate's interests .....while respecting the Constitution and the rights of individuals.
Sadly, we seem to be in a dangerous spiral towards some new high tech fascism. Media psychodramas create an environment in which corrupt legislators do the bidding of their multi-national corporate sponsors.
The question is: Can we stop these threats to freedom and civil liberties?
When will we hear people say that freedom and human dignity is more important than highly dubious claims of safety?
Why do we have this patter of dangerous schemes that promise safety but really just transfer power to corporate elites and state agencies?
Tyranny, as a result of empowering inept state and Federal agencies with broader mandates and more invasive technologies, is a far greater and more genuine threat than crime or identity theft.
Beagle Puss? lol ...
You are reich... I mean, right on that one.
Colorado, map THIS!
The question is: Can we stop these threats to freedom and civil liberties?
The answer it: Apparently not, short of some sort of civil war purge of fascist/statism. They just don't get it. Hitler is at the door.
Yes!!! Where do I order one of these excellent masks? I can use it when I ski in Colo in the winter, too. With my ski goggles or my big sunglasses, you won't even know if I am male or female!!! heeheheh
I just think we are quickly racing toward the book of Revelations, where everyone will wear the mark of the beast on their forehead or hand, or they won't be able to buy, sell, or trade. This could be the Mark on the Forehead. Eventually, they could use this as an identifying tool instead of a bank card and PIN. They read your face, or your forehead.
All it would take then is an evil leader like Hitler, possessed by the devil, and running the world through the UN. They are already setting up the world court and trying to take away our guns....
Colorado seems to have cameras at every intersection these days, and that is bugging me.
Actually, I believe those "cameras" are instead motion detectors for traffic signals, replacing the old wires in the pavement.
And the logical ending to this beginning - the World government and the World Court...
Judicial harassment
Even before Slobodan Milosevic was spirited out of Yugoslavia last week to face trial at The Hague war crimes court, a few maverick prosecutors in Europe had been trying to set precedents that would give the phrase "long arm of the law" a radical new meaning. In Spain, Italy and now in Belgium, they are seeking or have sought to extradite former leaders of foreign governments to face human rights charges. The prosecutors say they are concerned with justice, but their actions are primarily political, and they are opening a Pandora's box of forces that will militate against national sovereignty and the rule of law.
This week, a Brussels court ruled that Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, could be tried in Belgium for alleged crimes against humanity in Lebanon nearly 20 years ago. Mr. Sharon, who cancelled a trip to Belgium to head off the danger of arrest, is charged there with ordering the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians during Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon. The Belgian, Palestinian, Lebanese and Moroccan plaintiffs say Mr. Sharon allowed Christian militias, allied to Israel, to enter the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps to massacre some 800 people.
As is proper, Mr. Sharon has already been made to answer these charges in Israel. After the massacre, an Israeli state inquiry ruled that Mr. Sharon was indirectly responsible for the deaths and forced him to resign as defence minister. His extradition now does not serve justice, not least because there is only a tenuous link between Belgium and the 1982 events in Lebanon, and a trial in the tiny northern European country would lend undeserved respectability to a gross act of extraterritorial judicial usurpation. As the Israelis have rightly noted, through a spokesman for the prime minister's office, "this is a political show trial."
The trend to extradite high-profile leaders and put them on trial in foreign countries began three years ago when Baltasar Garzon, a grandstanding Spanish magistrate, tried to extradite former Chilean leader General Augusto Pinochet for his role in human rights abuses against Spanish nationals in Chile, allegedly committed after the 1973 coup that brought him to power. Two years of legal wrangling in Spain, England (where General Pinochet was undergoing surgery) and Chile ended when the extradition bid was thrown out. But the international attention catapulted Mr. Garzon from obscurity to stardom, and other European prosecutors have taken notice. Italian prosecutors in Italy are demanding the extradition of an Argentine navy captain for his alleged role in the kidnapping and disappearance of three Italian nationals in the late 1970s.
In the absence of clearly defined international standards, states cannot or should not unilaterally prosecute individuals outside their borders. The prosecution of heads of government and heads of state for enormities allegedly committed by them or their subordinates during their tenure in office should not be a matter of prosecutorial or judicial whim in any one of the 190 or so countries in the world. For every political action there is an opponent, and for every action of the type sometimes taken when nations are in crisis, there are thousands, sometimes millions. Giving them a forum in which to harass political leaders with suits, many of which will inevitably be frivolous and vexatious, is not the recipe for harmony and good government that its advocates claim.
BIG BROTHER INDEED!!!
From what I have read, we have about 60 points of measurement and only 15 are needed for a positive ID. these can be gathered by distance between the eyes, or bridge of nose, etc. Wearing a mask doesn't always negate identification. And one wonders if the 60 points are the data stored in the new driver's license cards. They are taking pictures of all international travelers in Canada now so I imagine we are also being face printed at the airport. After all, they have your identification from the ticket. It wouldn't be that difficult. Its a new world! Get ready!
We actually have cameras at intersections in this tiny sleepy town on the Texas Gulf Coast... They will catch you if you run a red light, you get a ticket in the mail. It is new here, only a few months old, and so far we know where they are. But they are truly cameras. I don't come to a ROLLING stop at that intersection and I don't run a red light there! The yellow light at those intersections is VERY SHORT, too.
The solution to "identity theft" is to stop requiring SS #s for every damn thing a citizen does - and use them only for SS and only after each citizen has received a new, "unpolluted" one - and then get rid of SS. Simple.
And these big idiots apparently haven't considered the uses criminals could make of these photo databases! I'd avoid such a license like the plague, and were I still a Coloradan I'd be screaming L-O-U-D-L-Y at the pols.
Its a new world! Get ready!
It's a New World Order. Get ready.
OK what if you wear that cloth mask in the photo above, the blue one, plus the goggles that cover the bridge of the nose, and what if you have an identical twin or triplet? My daughter just graduated from high school with a class of 535 kids, which included 12 sets of twins. Some of them are so identical, that even though I have known these kids anywhere from 12 to 18 years, I still can't tell them apart!!!
How will the ID mechanism work on identical faces. Soon there will be clones, too....
One more question, nsmart, what about plastic surgery? Some of them even do bone breaking and resetting on jaw alignment. Will that fool the machine? Hey, I think I am getting a headache from thinking too hard, I am a blonde you know!!!!
You better hope your clone or twin is not missing a conscience. I figure before long, we will hear of shootings similar to the home invasions where they got the wrong house.. only this will be the wrong face -- or the right face with the wrong profile.
Scary stuff. I would think even some of the brain dead left would object to this technology being used to monitor the travel of citizens.
Impossible. They are brain dead.
Unless your are Patrick Roy.
Not true. Patrick had his mug all shot up too, when he had a problem with spousal abuse. I assume he and his wife have that straightened out. I see he, Sakic and Blake all signed.
Once again the Republicans move us forward to a police state.
That is correct. Deal with it.
Well, I guess I better put on a Jesus mask while driving in Colorado...lol.
The scum bags might consider that hate speech, just like in Canada.
"I figure before long, we will hear of shootings similar to the home invasions where they got the wrong house.. only this will be the wrong face -- or the right face with the wrong profile. "
It is only a matter of time in Tampa
WE NEED TO FORMULATE A LIST OF GARANTEED RIGHTS THAT ANY INSTALLATION OF CAMERA TECHNOLOGY CAN NEVER BE USED FOR WHAT IT IS STARTING TO BE USED FOR.
Tampa, DICK Grecko map THIS!
Well, I guess I better put on a Jesus mask while driving in Colorado
Careful, what with the current direction America is heading, one of the federal government crossing guards (on every street corner in America, with plastic goggles and MP5s) might pull you out of the car and crucify you, before they remember to demand your I.D. papers and see that you are not really Christ.
Sabra and Shatila Refugee Camps, Lebanon, 1982 - Yes indeed, Prime Minsister Sharon is guilty of conspiracy to commit murderer. With that in mind, the US should arrest him next time he is in Washington, DC.
Actually, I believe those "cameras" are instead motion detectors for traffic signals, replacing the old wires in the pavement
Not when there are also wires in the pavement. Also, being an engineer, I know a camera when I see it.
Not when there are also wires in the pavement. Also, being an engineer, I know a camera when I see it.
I read an article a few weeks ago in my local rag The Canyon Courier that said the state is mandating replacement of the wires with motion detectors whenever work is done on a given intersection. The placement of the devices is consistent with their being motion detectors. If they were monitoring interections, they would be aimed at the middle of the intersection, not at the approaches.
if we get together and put a few up in capital hill the government scum bags will get scared and move against it. they would not want to take the chance that we might see them move the bodies.
Buy stock in mask companies!
LLBB
Long Live Big Brother
And we ain't seen nothing yet!
hummm... Do you know how many dogs now have microchips? and just how long do you think it will be required in new babies, too? Some benefits:
Schools will no longer need to take attendance as the scan will add their name when they walk in the door.
No ticket stubs as your ID will be entered when you pay.
Won't need to dig out ID for a plane ride.
Well.. what do you think?
And the yoyo's on this forum are happily posting their pictures in another thread.
Go figure.
"I guess I will start wearing a mask when I drive."