<story><title>Beijing bets on facial recognition in a big drive for total surveillance</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/world/wp/2018/01/07/feature/in-china-facial-recognition-is-sharp-end-of-a-drive-for-total-surveillance/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>leggomylibro</author><text>&amp;gt;a toilet roll dispenser at a public facility outside the Temple of Heaven in Beijing reportedly scans faces to keep people from stealing too much paper,&lt;p&gt;I have several questions:&lt;p&gt;1. Wait, am I stealing paper when I use a public restroom? Are those dispensers like the &amp;#x27;take a penny, leave a penny&amp;#x27; tills?&lt;p&gt;2. Is there an acceptable amount of stealing which the facial recognition limits, or does it alert the management any time that paper is dispensed and leave the judgement to human beings?&lt;p&gt;3. There are literally cameras in the stalls?&lt;p&gt;4. How long is its memory? If it shuts me down, can I simply wait for someone else to go in before resuming my theft?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>b0rsuk</author><text>All red herrings.&lt;p&gt;I heard of the toilet paper issue yesterday in a radio programme. It was in context of Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. They combine facial recognition, voice recognition and old fashioned human policemen to instantly stop dissidents. They boast when someone starts shouting &amp;quot;Long live Dalai Llama ! Freedom to Tibet(...)&amp;quot; they shut him down within 60-70 seconds.&lt;p&gt;There are guard posts all over the place. Temples bigger than a phone booth have a police station inside.&lt;p&gt;When they arrested 4 wealthiest inhabitants, it took people months to realize that. The information net is so tight.&lt;p&gt;Surveillance is the goal, not the means. Savings on toilet paper is just a bonus and a convenient excuse. Granted, Lhasa is a hotspot and gets special treatment, but China is all too happy to export these measures to various dictators to promote The China Way.&lt;p&gt;Native chinese blog poster gets a sentence for criticizing the government for sending army patrols to (some other) unruly region. He was saying it alienates the population and is overkill.&lt;p&gt;Your questions would earn you a fine at the very least.</text></comment>
<story><title>Beijing bets on facial recognition in a big drive for total surveillance</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/world/wp/2018/01/07/feature/in-china-facial-recognition-is-sharp-end-of-a-drive-for-total-surveillance/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>leggomylibro</author><text>&amp;gt;a toilet roll dispenser at a public facility outside the Temple of Heaven in Beijing reportedly scans faces to keep people from stealing too much paper,&lt;p&gt;I have several questions:&lt;p&gt;1. Wait, am I stealing paper when I use a public restroom? Are those dispensers like the &amp;#x27;take a penny, leave a penny&amp;#x27; tills?&lt;p&gt;2. Is there an acceptable amount of stealing which the facial recognition limits, or does it alert the management any time that paper is dispensed and leave the judgement to human beings?&lt;p&gt;3. There are literally cameras in the stalls?&lt;p&gt;4. How long is its memory? If it shuts me down, can I simply wait for someone else to go in before resuming my theft?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>doug1001</author><text>Minister to developer: &amp;quot;people are stealing toilet paper from stalls We have to stop this!&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;developer to Minister: &amp;quot;ideal use case for Machine Learning--i&amp;#x27;m on it&amp;quot;</text></comment>