HOW DOES DIGITAL CAMOUFLAGE WORK?

If the woman in the photo to the left were a friend of yours, you would most likely recognize her. But facial-recognition software would not. “Computer vision dazzle” (CV dazzle) is what artist Adam Harvey calls his strategies for disrupting facial-recognition systems. Why the effort? “There are surveillance cameras on every corner in New York. But no one can tell me who gets to see these images or what gets done with them. Millions of people post their photos online. Facebook has long had the technology to scan through them for a particular face. Though this has security benefits, it can also be abused. We should be able to defend ourselves from this, but in some places it’s illegal to wear a mask in public.” By the way: There are programs that can identify people even if they’re wearing a hat and sunglasses. (Faces are still recognizable despite being 30% obscured.) A more effective strategy is to tilt your head 15 degrees to the side.