I SHALL NOT THINK BAD THOUGHTS
Sep. 30th, 2008 02:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogITEM: The US Department of Homeland Security says its planned pre-crime system designed to detect "hostile thoughts" in people walking through border posts, airports and public places has been proven a success in tests.
Once called Project Hostile Intent, the system has been renamed the Future Attribute Screening Technologies (FAST) program. It purportedly works by using sensors to measure yr pulse rate, breathing, skin temperature, and fleeting facial expressions to determine if you might be planning on doing something illegal.
Like this!
They recently tested 140 paid volunteers at an equestrian centre in Maryland:
Amazing. It's like it's a prerequisite to have NEVER read any George Orwell or Philip K Dick to get a job in the DHS.
There’s about 31 flavors of WRONG about this idea, and that’s before you even get into the privacy/thoughtcrime implications.
It’s true that if you’re going to screen for terrorists at the airport (or anywhere else), behavioral profiling is a better approach than what the TSA has been doing so far – i.e. no-fly lists, banning bottled water and focusing on brown people in turbans wearing Transformers t-shirts. But I seriously doubt that a bunch of sensors linked to a computer app can determine someone’s “intent”, given the poor track record of everything from polygraphs to facial recognition techology. Such technologies aren’t that accurate, and they can even be deliberately defeated if you know how. And I don’t think a technological approach is any less subject to error or abuse than the current human version of behavioral profiling.
Of course, I think hostile thoughts every time they take my water bottle away from me, so I would be against this, wouldn’t I?
Are you pondering what I’m pondering,
This is dF
BONUS TRACK: The first panel in the official DHS literature is worth a close-up:
Once called Project Hostile Intent, the system has been renamed the Future Attribute Screening Technologies (FAST) program. It purportedly works by using sensors to measure yr pulse rate, breathing, skin temperature, and fleeting facial expressions to determine if you might be planning on doing something illegal.
Like this!
They recently tested 140 paid volunteers at an equestrian centre in Maryland:
Some subjects were told to act shifty, be evasive, deceptive and hostile. And many were detected. "We're still very early on in this research, but it is looking very promising," says DHS science spokesman John Verrico. "We are running at about 78% accuracy on mal-intent detection, and 80% on deception."
Amazing. It's like it's a prerequisite to have NEVER read any George Orwell or Philip K Dick to get a job in the DHS.
There’s about 31 flavors of WRONG about this idea, and that’s before you even get into the privacy/thoughtcrime implications.
It’s true that if you’re going to screen for terrorists at the airport (or anywhere else), behavioral profiling is a better approach than what the TSA has been doing so far – i.e. no-fly lists, banning bottled water and focusing on brown people in turbans wearing Transformers t-shirts. But I seriously doubt that a bunch of sensors linked to a computer app can determine someone’s “intent”, given the poor track record of everything from polygraphs to facial recognition techology. Such technologies aren’t that accurate, and they can even be deliberately defeated if you know how. And I don’t think a technological approach is any less subject to error or abuse than the current human version of behavioral profiling.
Of course, I think hostile thoughts every time they take my water bottle away from me, so I would be against this, wouldn’t I?
Are you pondering what I’m pondering,
This is dF
BONUS TRACK: The first panel in the official DHS literature is worth a close-up:
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no subject
on 2008-09-30 08:36 am (UTC)