{"id":12306,"date":"2014-04-19T13:29:50","date_gmt":"2014-04-19T23:29:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12306"},"modified":"2014-04-19T20:35:54","modified_gmt":"2014-04-20T06:35:54","slug":"new-facial-recognition-systems-at-j-border-once-again-testing-out-the-next-gen-loss-of-civil-liberties-on-the-gaijin-guinea-pigs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12306","title":{"rendered":"New facial recognition systems at J border: Once again, testing out the next-gen loss of civil liberties on the “Gaijin Guinea Pigs”"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog. \u00a0First, take in this:<\/p>\n

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Face recognition system to be tested again at Japanese immigration<\/strong>
\n Kyodo News, April 19, 2014, courtesy of JK<\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/www.globalpost.com\/dispatch\/news\/kyodo-news-international\/140419\/face-recognition-system-be-tested-again-at-japanese-im<\/a><\/p>\n

The government plans to restart from August a test on a facial recognition system to speed up immigration checks at airports and prepare for an expected surge in visitors for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, officials said Saturday.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Justice Ministry’s Immigration Bureau will reintroduce the system on a trial basis for Japanese passengers at Haneda and Narita airports for about five weeks, after a series of errors in the first test in 2012 led the ministry to forgo its plan to adopt the system.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Facial recognition systems check passenger photos taken during inspections against data in a chip in their passports. Britain and Australia have introduced such systems.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The bureau conducted the first test on roughly 29,000 people between August and September 2012, but the system failed to recognize about 17 percent of the passengers.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A panel of experts told the Justice Ministry in May last year it should introduce the facial recognition system to increase use of automated gates to leave and enter the country, quicker than conventional immigration inspections.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Automated gates at major airports equipped with fingerprint recognition technology are unpopular with passengers as they require prior registration. The facial recognition system will not need it.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

ENDS<\/p>\n

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COMMENT<\/strong>: \u00a0Now let’s survey the narratives of justification in this article. \u00a0We have the argument that it’s allegedly for a looming event (NJ swarm from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, even though it’s more than six years away!), the convenience factor (faster processing of people, this time without even registering!), and the bandwagon\u00a0argument\u00a0that others are implementing it (Britain<\/a> and Australia<\/a>, whose civil societies have had more robust debates on the issues\u00a0of privacy and civil liberties). \u00a0All of these arguments were made during the reinstitution of NJ fingerprinting in 2007<\/a>, and that time it wasn’t for a specific event, but rather for anti-terrorism [sic] in general. \u00a0And as Debito.org has argued many times before, once you get the public softened up on the idea of taking away civil liberties by testing it on one sector of the population (in this case, the Gaijin Guinea Pigs<\/a>, since foreigners in every society have fewer civil and political rights), it gets expanded on the rest of the population.<\/p>\n

Let’s enter the\u00a0No-Brainer Zone: \u00a0I anticipate the facial recognition software will be implemented nationwide more seamlessly than any other intrusive technology yet, since it is so convenient and doesn’t require individual registry or even\u00a0much hardware installation. \u00a0There’s even a profit motive<\/a>. \u00a0Consider this:<\/p>\n

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EDITORIAL<\/strong>
\n Stores sharing shoppers\u2019 faces<\/strong>
\n The Japan Times, APR 12, 2014, courtesy of JK<\/strong><\/p>\n

Over 100 supermarkets and convenience stores in the Tokyo metropolitan area have been recording images of shoppers\u2019 faces as part of antishoplifting measures. Though the stores have posted signs stating cameras are in place, the stores have been sharing the biometric data of customers without their knowledge.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Such sharing should be considered an invasion of privacy and going against the intention of Japan\u2019s Personal Information Protection Law.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

After 115 stores of 50 separate companies installed a shoplifting prevention system, they obtained the power not only to record every customer\u2019s face but also to share that record in a network.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

If a person shoplifts or makes unreasonable complaints, camera footage of the person is turned into biometric data and classified into categories such as shoplifter or complainer. That data is then stored on the firm\u2019s server and made available to other stores.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

When the same face is recognized at another store, the staff is notified that the blacklisted person is in their store.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Because the accuracy rate of current recognition software has become extremely high \u2014 99.9 percent accurate by some accounts \u2014 the data is more or less equivalent to the original image. That means that even when the original images of the faces are not made available, a nearly complete replication of that face, in data form, is being shared.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The problem is the lack of checks on the system. Seemingly whoever has access to the network could classify customers according to an arbitrary criterion. But what constitutes an \u201cunreasonable\u201d complaint is open to question. And whether an act of shoplifting is reported to the police and whether the suspect is convicted of the crime is a matter of the law. It should not be a matter of how an employee feels about it.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Unfortunately with this technology, stores are now able to put people on a blacklist for any reason whatsoever.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Rest of the article at
\nhttp:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/opinion\/2014\/04\/12\/editorials\/stores-sharing-shoppers-faces\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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Comments at the JT to this article were very poignant regarding the probable treatment of Visible Minorities:<\/p>\n

Steve Jackman<\/strong>
\nI suspect that this technology and sharing of data is also being used to target shoppers who are visible minorities for extra surveillance. If so, that would explain accounts I have heard from some foreign residents of Japan that security guards seem to suddenly appear out of nowhere when they are visiting shops (especially, certain large department stores in the Tokyo area).<\/em><\/p>\n

=============================
\nphu<\/strong>
\nWhile I’d stop short of absolutely connecting this to such accounts, it was also my first thought that the abuse of this system would immediately (or at least very promptly) swing to surveillance of minorities.<\/em><\/p>\n

The article uses the term “blacklist” without explicitly stating that the customers HAVE been blacklisted, as in disallowed from entering one of the stores in the network. In the absence of that actual claim, and based on what should be the illegality of this practice, I’m not convinced that’s actually happening: As presented, the whole thing seems more arbitrary than barring a convicted criminal from the premises of one store (which would be reasonable in some circumstances) and closer to cooperative discrimination, whether legally justified or not, and whether directed at minorities or at ethnic, resident Japanese<\/em>.<\/p>\n

=============================
\nSteve Jackman<\/strong>
\nThe risk and a likely scenario of a system like this, which lacks proper checks-and-balances, is that the actions of a single shop employee at a store can result in a shopper getting forever blacklisted and tagged for extra surveillance at many other stores.<\/em><\/p>\n

What if this employee is inherently suspicious of all foreigners in general, or harbors racist feelings towards anyone who does not appear Japanese? Such an employee can end up blacklisting and tagging a foreign shopper not for anything specific that the customer has done, but rather out of the employee’s own paranoia against non-Japanese shoppers.<\/em><\/p>\n

=============================
\nphu<\/strong>
\nCertainly. In places where minorities are either accepted or largely ignored, this would still be unacceptable (as you say, it puts too much power in arbitrary and unchecked hands, regardless of how it’s used), but Japan’s pronounced discrimination problem does make it hard to ignore the likelihood of abuse skewing towards minorities.<\/em><\/p>\n

=============================<\/p>\n

Food for thought as the dragnets draw ever tighter. Although the 2020 Olympics have been used as justification for positive pro-NJ rights issues (see for example here<\/a> and\u00a0here<\/a>), here’s an example of where it’s doing the opposite. Japan’s policymakers get weird whenever the outside world is going to drop by for a visit<\/a>. Not only when they’re being called over to stay awhile<\/a>. ARUDOU Debito<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kyodo: The government plans to restart from August a test on a facial recognition system to speed up immigration checks at airports and prepare for an expected surge in visitors for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, officials said Saturday.<\/p>\n

COMMENT: Let’s survey the narratives of justification in this article. We have the argument that it’s allegedly for a looming event (NJ swarm from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, even though it’s more than six years away!), the convenience factor (faster processing of people, this time without even registering!), and the bandwagon argument that others are implementing it (Britain and Australia, whose civil societies have had more robust debates on the issues of privacy and civil liberties). All of these arguments were made during the reinstitution of NJ fingerprinting in 2007, and that time it wasn’t for a specific event, but rather for anti-terrorism [sic] in general. And as Debito.org has argued many times before, once you get the public softened up on the idea of taking away civil liberties by testing it on one sector of the population (in this case, the Gaijin Guinea Pigs, since foreigners in every society have fewer civil and political rights), it gets expanded on the rest of the population. Let’s enter the No-Brainer Zone: I anticipate the facial recognition software will be implemented nationwide more seamlessly than any other intrusive technology yet, since it is so convenient and doesn’t require individual registry or even much hardware installation. There’s even a profit motive. Consider this:<\/p>\n

JT Editorial: Over 100 supermarkets and convenience stores in the Tokyo metropolitan area have been recording images of shoppers\u2019 faces as part of antishoplifting measures. Though the stores have posted signs stating cameras are in place, the stores have been sharing the biometric data of customers without their knowledge. […] The problem is the lack of checks on the system. Seemingly whoever has access to the network could classify customers according to an arbitrary criterion. But what constitutes an \u201cunreasonable\u201d complaint is open to question. And whether an act of shoplifting is reported to the police and whether the suspect is convicted of the crime is a matter of the law. It should not be a matter of how an employee feels about it. Unfortunately with this technology, stores are now able to put people on a blacklist for any reason whatsoever.<\/p>\n

COMMENT FROM SJ AND PHU: What if this employee is inherently suspicious of all foreigners in general, or harbors racist feelings towards anyone who does not appear Japanese? Such an employee can end up blacklisting and tagging a foreign shopper not for anything specific that the customer has done, but rather out of the employee’s own paranoia against non-Japanese shoppers… Japan’s pronounced discrimination problem does make it hard to ignore the likelihood of abuse skewing towards minorities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,36,33,5,12,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bad-business-practices","category-bad-social-science","category-fingerprinting-nj","category-human-rights","category-immigration-assimilation","category-problematic-foreign-treatment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12306\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}