[HN Gopher] Czech police forced to turn off facial recognition c...
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Czech police forced to turn off facial recognition cameras at the
Prague airport
Author : campuscodi
Score : 75 points
Date : 2025-11-01 18:42 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (edri.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (edri.org)
| hacka22 wrote:
| this is great news and I wonder if and how this has impact on
| other European deployments
| analog8374 wrote:
| We're preferring ignorance to knowledge here because we don't
| trust the government. Which is weird.
| themafia wrote:
| If you don't trust the source how can you call what you
| received "knowledge?" Why is that weird?
| parineum wrote:
| Prefering government ignorance is the same as privacy.
| Alupis wrote:
| Privacy would mean being able to fly anywhere without
| showing ID - which is not reality.
| viraptor wrote:
| Generally we also don't trust the technology, not just the
| government. Unless you're up for being detained just because
| you look quite like some wanted person. Given enough samples,
| there is some guaranteed overlap.
| jbv027 wrote:
| Also technology provider is important. I doubt that
| government is able to self host face recognition. So the
| most common implementation would be microsoft (or any big
| corp good at lobbying in this part of the world) owning
| technology and data to preserve their vendor lock in. So
| there is high probability that those data will be used for
| other purposes (you can easily imagine standard corporate
| excuses if someone finds out).
| idle_zealot wrote:
| It's not just the government. Generally I think knowledge is
| very important, but as with any important value it butts up
| against other rights and values. In this case, the individual
| right to privacy ought to win out against a company or
| government's or neighbor's right to knowledge. Privacy, like
| speech, is one of those critically important rights that when
| violated en masse leads to catastrophic harm; in privacy's
| case that's through chilling effects, enabling more effective
| targeted enforcement of laws, and effective targeted
| propaganda campaigns. A lack of privacy reinforces and
| exaggerates any existing power structures and imbalances. For
| an authoritarian, this is fantastic. If you believe in
| democracy or egalitarianism it should be terrifying.
| Alupis wrote:
| Is being in an airport actually considered private?
|
| It's a public space, and you must show ID to gain access to
| the secured area. Additionally, you are subjected to
| baggage and carry-on inspection, as well as body inspection
| and metal detection, etc. There are cameras everywhere,
| monitoring and recording everything.
|
| Presumably this system was designed to recognize
| individuals that may be traveling under false-identities,
| and are known "bad guys" - otherwise the nation-state
| security apparatus would have known about the attempted air
| travel well in advance.
|
| The ability to abuse this system may be real, but it seems
| much more likely your rights would be violated well before
| you reached any facial recognition systems.
| aerostable_slug wrote:
| Sure to result in a surge of ticket sales as clandestine
| intelligence operatives pivot to Czechia as their flight hub of
| choice. /s
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