When Science Fiction Dystopia becomes real
Imagine you are about to enter a very secure place, such an airport. You proudly have a tattoo in your arm, you have it since you were a teenager. Just before passing, a cop ask you politely to show your tattoo entirely, with a surprise feeling, you show it.
The cop takes out a scanner and pass it through your arm. A second later other cop is watching his computer with a weird face, and ask you to stay apart for a moment. They guide you to a room where you are ask a lot of weird questions, you are actually in hurry.
Apparently your tattoo is very similar to a picture related to an organized criminal group. You insist you don’t know what is all of that about, but their algorithm is clear, it has +90% of coincidence. What..?
Do you think this sounds like science fiction? Well, it’s not.
In the USA, the government is working wants to use it, and the scientist developing it used some tattooed criminals in prison for a database, and the algorithm is being tried since 2014. All the information is here.
Electronic Frontier Foundation is trying to push both the government and the scientist developing it in order to stop the project or at least, stop using prisoners for the database right now.Here’s how you can help.