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Identifying Rioters

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Is technology being misused to identify London rioters? The London riots have taken the country by storm. Yesterday we reported that BlackBerry Messenger had become the communicator du jour of the protesters, who were taking advantage of the private texting application and its encryption features to stay a step ahead of authorities. This isn’t the first mass demonstration whose participants have utilized technology to aid their cause. Movements in Egypt, Libya, and Syria were among those that took to YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and cell phones to organize and communicate.

But those public outlets are easy to trace, and BBM is believed to be a crucial tool of the London rioters. It’s also spoken to RIM’s surprising influence. The handset manufacturer has been associated with weak sales and ill-fated gadgets lately, and the BlackBerry has become almost archaic in the younger generation’s eyes. But the smartphone of the enterprise community clearly has a place in London, given its widespread and considerably effective use in the riots.

Will The London Riots Be The Turning Point For Facial Recognition As A Crime-Fighting Tool? Google Group Members to Use Facial Recognition to Identify London Rioters. A new Google Group called “London Riots Facial Recognition” has appeared online, in the wake of the riots that rocked the U.K. capital over the weekend. The group’s goal is to use facial recognition technologies to identify the looters who appear in online photos. The group appears to be thoughtfully considering its actions, in threads titled “Ethical Issues,” and “Keeping Things Legal,” for example. They’ve also stated that “it’s important we only use legal sources for images.” However, there’s a major “creepy” factor to this undertaking, too. The idea that a group of people would team up online to use (misuse?) Facial recognition technologies in this way, notably outside professional law enforcement channels, seems like a modern take on vigilante style justice, where the torches of the angry villagers have turned into APIs and algorithms.

Image credit, top: DailyMail. London Riots Facial Recognition. Help work out how to do facial recognition. It makes me very nervous, but how "ethical" or not this depends on who's driving and participating in the effort. A college friend of mine got charged with inciting a riot by standing on a car and shouting "Don't burn our hood! Go burn some rich folks stuff! Follow me! " According to him they didn't trash his stuff, and that was worth the hassle with the courts. If your shop or car got torched or your kids are afraid at night, this is probably a great idea. Leveraging public data (photos) and off the shelf technology to at least identify witnesses if not actual participants should be done. I've been working in security, identity and privacy for over a decade and this "ethical" question has loomed since before Orwell.

If this makes you queasy, get engaged. Catch A Looter.

And punishing them