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Re:China can apparently now identify citizens based on the w... by InclinedPlane on Wednesday November 07, 2018 @03:38PM (#18402186)
Yup. Think about how you can recognize your friends without even seeing their face, by the way they walk, what they wear, how tall they are, and other contextual clues. Computers will be able to do all of that. Also think about other things that only computers with massive amounts of data will be able to do. Computers will be able to enumerate your wardrobe, your possessions. They'll be able to figure out most of the books you've read or own. They'll know where you work, what your schedule is, where you shop, what you do for fun, when you take vacations and where. They'll be able to learn all of this even if you don't freely give all this information up through social media posts and what-have-you by following you in the background of other stuff or through other "feeds". Imagine how much easier it is to identify someone in a picture or a video if you can pull in "big data" context which narrows down the possible/likely people who could be in that location at that time (wearing those clothes, doing that activity, within a given weight/height range, etc, etc, etc.)

We don't really know what the feasible computational and data limits are here, the potential (and likelihood, I think) is that they are much, much lower than where we would like them to be. In the near future something very close to ubiquitous surveillance is very likely to be the norm. And that has all sorts of chilling implications. If systems can keep track of where you are and what you're doing most hours of most days then that opens up a lot of questions in terms of free expression, political organizing, civil disobedience, etc.

Re:China can apparently now identify citizens based on the w... by elorant on Wednesday November 07, 2018 @03:49PM (#18402290)
Sound like advertiser's heaven. Sign me out please.
Re:China can apparently now identify citizens based on the w... by veemjeem on Wednesday November 07, 2018 @07:03PM (#18403369)
I know people like to imagine of all the orwellian possibilities, but it could have some useful medical cases too. It would be great to put some kind of camera in my grandparent's home to automatically monitor their health. My grandfather fell in the middle of the night, passed out, and was not discovered until the next day. He was still alive, but injured, but it could have been serious.
Re:China can apparently now identify citizens based on the w... by jaclaz on Thursday November 08, 2018 @10:28AM (#18406900)
>Think about how you can recognize your friends without even seeing their face, by the way they walk, what they wear, how tall they are, and other contextual clues.

Yep, but think also how many times you approached a friend from behind and patted him/her on the back only to realize that you just patted a perfect stranger?

I have no particular problem to believe that one's gait is "distinctive", but quite a few in believing that that particular stroll is "unique".

Re:China can apparently now identify citizens based on the w... by wwarner on Wednesday November 07, 2018 @09:03PM (#18403866)
You might also think about how often you walk right past your friends without recognizing them.