Facial Recognition Cameras

In George Orwell’s 1984 people’s TV screens can identify them, notice any alteration in their facial expressions, heartrate or breathing, and report back to the State. In the book, you’re being watched in your own homes. How scary is that!

Now you may not think you’re being monitored today, and there certainly isn’t a TV screen watching you as in 1984, at least I hope not, but have you ever had this situation? You’re chatting about something with someone, pick up your phone and go on Facebook or some other form of social media, and lo & behold there’s an advert for something very similar. Say you’re talking about a holiday you had in Cyprus, and the next thing you know there’s an advert on Facebook for holidays in Cyprus. But you hadn’t searched it. The ‘cookies’ hadn’t picked up on it, because you hadn’t typed it in. You were just talking about it. You look to your friend or your husband or wife and say, ‘Bloody hell, that’s a coincidence,’ and you start questioning if it’s conceivable that your phone is actually listening to you or reading your mind!

What kind of sorcery is this?

Coincidence? Yeah, right.

Call it digital eavesdropping, if you like, but it’s going on. A Singapore-based marketing technology solutions provider called SilverPush allows for more detailed tracking of users from multiple devices used by a single use.

This is how it works; during the adverts your television transmits a particular tone. You can’t hear it, but your phone picks up on it, so those two devises, Smartphone and TV, are now linked, and they’re linked to you. SilverPush can now track your TV viewing habits through your phone.  

Cross-device tracking is a huge thing nowadays. It’s mainly advertisers who use this, but it wouldn’t be hard to envisage other uses. Any government, for instance, interested in who you’re meeting with could play a tone through the TV and virtually ping all the phones in the room, identifying the whole group.

And I wouldn’t out it past Starmer to be looking into this. He’s already putting up biometric facial recognition cameras in Croydon, Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire (Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield etc.)

Never underestimate how callous he is