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Privacy? No not heard


In the Chinese urban district of Suzhou (Anhui Province), outdoor video cameras were used to identify people wearing the “wrong” clothes. Using face recognition software, officials identified the perpetrators and publicly shamed them by posting photos and personal data on the Internet. The department of city administration believed that in this way it would be possible to eradicate the "uncivilized" habits of the inhabitants of the city. Cloud4Y tells how it all happened.

Start


Officials of a large (about 6 million inhabitants) city in eastern China were ordered to eradicate the "uncivilized behavior" of the population. And they didn’t come up with anything better than using the face recognition software used in commonly installed camcorders. Indeed, with their help it is so convenient to identify cases of "uncivilized" behavior.

We even posted a special explanatory post on WeChat (it was later deleted), which read: "Uncivilized behavior means that people behave and act in such a way that they violate public order due to their lack of generally accepted morality. Many believe that this is nonsense, and not a serious problem. ... Others believe that public places are really “public”, and there should not be oversight and public pressure. This has led to a kind of smug, undisciplined thinking . ”

But what did the authorities of the city decide to eradicate, which they considered shameful, uncivilized and deeply vicious? You won’t believe it - pajamas! More precisely, wearing pajamas in public.

The essence of the problem



Bright pajamas are the usual street clothes for many women. I

must say that wearing pajamas in public is a common occurrence in China, especially among older women who prefer bright colors, as well as floral or cartoon patterns. In winter, in the south of China, it is also a popular form of clothing, because there, unlike the northern cities, most houses do not have central heating. And you won’t go to bed without pajamas. And she’s warm, soft, comfortable. I just don’t want to leave! So they go in their pajamas all day. Both in the house, and on the street. In general, the origin of the tradition of wearing pajamas on the street has a bunch of versions and is widely discussed on the net, but they all agree on one thing: pajamas are extremely comfortable.

Shanghai, for example, has long been considered the capital of "pajama fashion." In 2009, authorities tried to ban this practice by placing outdoor advertisements throughout the city with loud slogans such as “Pajamas do not leave home” or “Be a civilized resident.” Moreover, even a special “pajama police” was created, which patrolled different areas of the city. But since the initiative was tied to a major economic event, after its completion the activity of the fight against pajamas was sharply reduced. And the tradition has been preserved.

We went further to Suzhou. They tracked offenders for some time, and then published photographs of seven city residents walking in public places in their pajamas. In addition to photographs taken from surveillance cameras, names, numbers of state ID-cards, as well as the addresses of those places in which "uncivilized behavior" were noticed, were published.

It didn’t take so much time on everything. Information databases were stored in the cloud , and the analysis of existing and incoming data was carried out literally on the fly. This made it possible to quickly identify malicious violators.

Through social media, the Suzhou Department publicly shamed a young woman named Dong, who was seen wearing a chic pink robe, trousers, and pointed orange ballet shoes. In the same way, a man named Niu was criticized who was seen strolling in a black and white cage in a pajama suit in a shopping center.

Such activity of officials caused a wave of discontent on the Internet. As one commentator aptly remarked, “such things happen when very high technologies fall into the hands of very low level bureaucrats, and by low level I mean a low level of intelligence.”

Note that public shame is a common practice in China. In movie theaters, laser pointers are used to shame viewers who play on their phones during a session. And in Shanghai, face recognition systems were installed at some pedestrian crossings in order to identify escaped prisoners.

There were other examples of government attempts to get rid of "uncivilized" habits. So, the authorities imposed fines for spitting in public places, and most recently introduced a ban on the “ Beijing bikini ”, a practice where men tuck shirts in the summer, exposing their belly.

Full video control of the company


The legitimacy of the use of face recognition programs by law enforcement agencies remains a hot topic of discussion around the world. Russia even filed lawsuits against automatic face recognition. In some places, video surveillance is completely prohibited. Not so in China.

Over the past few years, the use of face recognition software has become commonplace. The police used it to create a powerful mechanism for monitoring and identifying representatives of racial minorities, for catching thieves of toilet paper, managing the livestock of pigs and the census of pandas . With this system, the Chinese can board a plane or order food for themselves.

About toilet paper thieves
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The scale and real need for using face recognition technology in China, where enthusiasm for new digital tools often outstrips existing capabilities, is not always clear and transparent. However, many Chinese have adopted this technology and do not oppose it.

However, the disclosure of names and the public censure of those who wear pajamas in Suzhou are already beyond the acceptable range, many Chinese citizens say. Some WeChat users in the comments on the department’s post stated that they did not agree with the officials’s decision to publish personal information on the Internet. Others just wanted to know what was so bad about wearing pajamas in public. After all, “when celebrities put on pajamas for events, they are called fashionable. But when ordinary people wear pajamas to walk the streets, they are called uncivilized, ”Internet activists said.

Summary


Only after the scandal became nationwide did city officials quickly remove their original post and apologize formally. They explained their action by the fact that Suzhou was fighting for the title of "The Most Civilized City of China" in a competition held at the state level. And all the activities of officials were aimed specifically at winning this competition.

It is worth noting that an increasing number of citizens express concern about the confidentiality of personal data and the inviolability of their personal lives. And they even try to challenge the growing powers of government agencies to track people. This is understandable. Few people will like that his data, for far-fetched reasons, can be easily poured onto the Internet by some petty official. And you can also create a base of "dissidents", which will almost certainly be on the black market.

In general, the story turned out to be funny, but the situation is terrible (s). It turns out that it is quite possible to live to see the day when the wrong clothes, participating in the wrong event, or just talking with the wrong person can lead to public condemnation by the state and “conscious” law-abiding citizens.

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Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/undefined/

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