Mastercard investing in technology to identify commuters by gait, heartbeat

Re:Mastercard investing in technology to identify commuters ... by DyslexicAtheist on Wednesday March 04, 2020 @05:15AM (#22482552)

I not only understand this sentiment but also live myself by these rules. But for every person who refuses to work on this type of tech there are hundreds ready to fill the gap and happy to defend and gaslight critics.

We've been playing this game since decades[1] and the pace has been accelerating (and keeps on doing so). There is no way to stop this because the state always plays the long game, and the odds are rigged against us.

[1] Jacques Ellul "The Technological Society" (pdf) https://archive.org/details/JacquesEllulTheTechnologicalSoci...

[2] James C. Scott "The Art of Not being Governed" (pdf) https://libcom.org/files/Art.pdf

[3] James C. Scott "Seeing Like a State" https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300078152/seeing-state / pdf: https://libcom.org/files/Seeing%20Like%20a%20State%20-%20Jam...

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Re:Mastercard investing in technology to identify commuters ... by voldacar on Wednesday March 04, 2020 @06:15AM (#22482790)

I will always upvote James C. Scott. More people on this site should read his stuff

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Re:Mastercard investing in technology to identify commuters ... by trevyn on Wednesday March 04, 2020 @07:10AM (#22483045)

Agree. I haven’t read all of Seeing Like a State yet, but it does contain quite a few hints about how to protect yourself from the power of states.

For example, states like to make their subjects “legible” to the state in specific ways, so deliberately becoming illegible is a defense mechanism.

Personally, I have been enjoying that the facial mask has surely been making facial recognition more challenging, though of course this is short-lived.

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Re:Mastercard investing in technology to identify commuters ... by greedo on Wednesday March 04, 2020 @01:11PM (#22486148)

Not only have we been playing this game for decades, because of the ratcheting effect of so many privacy infringements, it's almost impossible to go back to a happier time.

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