Overview

Protesting isn’t the same as it was in the 90’s, or before. Going out with 90,000 to complain about government actions was relatively safe, and very few people actually got arrested. You’d go. You’d show them how many people cared. You’d go home. End of story. Maybe the riot cops would come and things would end with people running away.

Now, showing up literally means adding your name to a public list of people who are opposed to what the government is doing. That’s not so bad if you’re an ally sticking up for other people. It’s not great if you’re one of the people being targeted by the government. Showing your face at a protest means telling them that you’re not just someone they don’t like, but someone who deserves extra attention because you’ll make trouble for them.

The Reality of Facial Recognition

Let me tell you a story about the intersection of facial recognition and public protest. A few years after the Boston Marathon Bombing I helped a local emergency management group (volunteer police) keep folks safe. I manned a radio tower and acted as the communication hub for our people. We were positioned by the start line next to the thousands of runners waiting for the start. One of the officers - let’s call him Ted - was a photographer, and took pictures of interesting things, including some of the various federal agents that were there.

You see, the FBI, the Secret Service, and others use the Boston Marathon as real world practice. Even if nothing goes wrong, it’s a chance to go into the field, deploy their gadgets, and practice doing their job. Local police and CERT people come from all across Massachusetts and are dispatched to points along the route. Mostly they just keep cars from trying to drive through the marathon, and make themselves available to radio in anything notable that comes up, like a medical emergency.

There is a list of volunteer officers & CERT folks participating, and we did all have special lanyards we had to wear, but there’s no way to look at one of us and know who the person was, and none of us needed to register our phone numbers with them or anything. That day, Ted wasn’t in uniform. Our stuff was set up, and he was just wandering around, taking pictures in public areas wearing street-clothes while we waited for the start.

His cell phone rings. He answers it. The person on the other end says “Stop that.” It was the Secret Service. They weren’t thrilled with him taking pictures of them - and the other feds - in a situation where there was a real possibility of terrorist acts. The only identifying thing Ted was wearing was a Lanyard with a color that identified him as police. They’d done what they were there to do. They’d spotted someone acting a little suspiciously. They’d used their gadgets, and in essentially no time flat they not only knew who he was, but had his phone number.

That was about ten years ago. Facial recognition has only gotten better. Computers have only gotten faster, and social media companies like Facebook have made good money selling people’s name’s and faces to government agencies, and anyone else who wants them.

Facial recognition of protesters is NOT a sci-fi movie threat. It is a reality that has been with us for over a decade. The only difference is that ten years ago the government wasn’t literally trying to re-imagine itself as Nazi Party v2.0

Fighting Facial Recognition

Facial recognition is good, but at the moment it’s also terrible at handling weird makeup. The most recent paper I’ve found on this is from Dec. 2024 titled Novel AI Camera Camouflage: Face Cloaking Without Full Disguise. You can download the paper on arxiv.org. The older methods of “CV Dazzle” ( Computer Vision Dazzle ) makeup patters don’t work anymore. The software has moved beyond that.

The short version is that masks and goggles keep you safe, but you can’t take them off. Some creative face paint can completely disable the software’s ability to recognize you as even having a face. I recommend you check out "‘Dazzle’ makeup won’t trick facial recognition. Here’s what experts say will" on Digital Trends for its overview of the situation and suggestions on strategies.

The other thing to keep in mind is that every time you post photos of protesters online without hiding their faces, you’re helping the government build a list of people they don’t like.