CV-1984: Facial Recognition Technology To Be Used To Combat Spread of Virus Globally

Activist Post has warned that the COVID-1984 pandemic would be used to relinquish your rights and continue the accelerated roll out of facial recognition and normal surveillance like drones and smartphones. Now, that fact is being admitted publicly as countries seek to use facial recognition, artificial intelligence and surveillance cameras to fight the spread of CV.

In China, some residents’ homes on the outside and inside the buildings themselves are plagued by surveillance cameras to monitor those under quarantine and enforce the lockdowns.

Robots have also been deployed for use in quarantine hotels.

But China isn’t the only country that seeks to use surveillance to monitor the health and location of its citizens, France is also deploying measures in the name of “safety.” France will begin using its existing network of surveillance cameras to monitor if its population is wearing masks, and track how its citizens are complying with social distancing after its coronavirus lockdown is eased next week, according to reports.

Besides France and China, Russia is also utilizing surveillance cameras on its own population. Russia is using its pre-existing massive facial recognition network of over 100,000 cameras to monitor citizens under quarantine.

China and South Korea have already deployed citizen-tracking systems using surveillance, while Israel and the US are preparing similar surveillance measures, according to a report by ZDNet.

In total, governments in at least 25 countries are employing vast programs for — mobile data tracking, apps to record personal contact with others, CCTV networks equipped with facial recognition, permission schemes to go outside and drones to enforce social isolation regimes according to The Guardian.

Meanwhile, in the U.S., Californian software developer Landing AI has created video surveillance software that watches people and sounds the alarm if they get too close to one another.

“Landing AI has developed an AI-enabled social distancing detection tool that can detect if people are keeping a safe distance from each other by analyzing real-time video streams from the camera,” the company said in a statement.

A similar technology is already being introduced by Amazon in its warehouses, with the company threatening to fire workers if they violate social distancing “guidelines.” Speaking of Amazon, its home surveillance company, Ring, is now testing the public’s acceptance of facial recognition according to a document obtained by ArsTechnica. However, as Activist Post has pointed out most police departments are already using Amazon’s Facial Recognition technology in combination with Ring’s video they have access to. So adding facial recognition to Ring’s cameras wouldn’t be news at all.