The Fashion Line Designed To Trick Surveillance Cameras (theguardian.com) 95
Freshly Exhumed shares a report from The Guardian: Automatic license plate readers, which use networked surveillance cameras and simple image recognition to track the movements of cars around a city, may have met their match, in the form of a T-shirt. Or a dress. Or a hoodie. The anti-surveillance garments were revealed at the DefCon cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas on Saturday by the hacker and fashion designer Kate Rose, who presented the inaugural collection of her Adversarial Fashion line.
To human eyes, Rose's fourth amendment T-shirt contains the words of the fourth amendment to the U.S. constitution in bold yellow letters. The amendment, which protects Americans from "unreasonable searches and seizures," has been an important defense against many forms of government surveillance: in 2012, for instance, the U.S. supreme court ruled that it prevented police departments from hiding GPS trackers on cars without a warrant. But to an automatic license plate reader (ALPR) system, the shirt is a collection of license plates, and they will get added to the license plate reader's database just like any others it sees. The intention is to make deploying that sort of surveillance less effective, more expensive, and harder to use without human oversight, in order to slow down the transition to what Rose calls "visual personally identifying data collection." "It's a highly invasive mass surveillance system that invades every part of our lives, collecting thousands of plates a minute. But if it's able to be fooled by fabric, then maybe we shouldn't have a system that hangs things of great importance on it," she said.
To human eyes, Rose's fourth amendment T-shirt contains the words of the fourth amendment to the U.S. constitution in bold yellow letters. The amendment, which protects Americans from "unreasonable searches and seizures," has been an important defense against many forms of government surveillance: in 2012, for instance, the U.S. supreme court ruled that it prevented police departments from hiding GPS trackers on cars without a warrant. But to an automatic license plate reader (ALPR) system, the shirt is a collection of license plates, and they will get added to the license plate reader's database just like any others it sees. The intention is to make deploying that sort of surveillance less effective, more expensive, and harder to use without human oversight, in order to slow down the transition to what Rose calls "visual personally identifying data collection." "It's a highly invasive mass surveillance system that invades every part of our lives, collecting thousands of plates a minute. But if it's able to be fooled by fabric, then maybe we shouldn't have a system that hangs things of great importance on it," she said.
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Whether someone is in favor of the defense of unalienable rights can be seen in his willingness to defend also those rights that he does not plan to utilize himself. Because by your logic, divide and conquer will work. Want to abolish the right to speak freely? Get the ones that consider censorship a good idea in the boat. Want to abolish the right to bear arms? Ralley the tree huggers.
This way, you can erase civil liberties one by one.
Apparently I have found someone who considers our rights something that
Re: NEEDS TO BE BANNED!!! (Score:2)
"Want to abolish the right to bear arms? Ralley the tree huggers."
How are these related? I know plenty of old school environmentalists who strongly support the right of a free people to bear arms. Responsible stewardship of the Earth is in no way incompatible with an armed populace.
Asking for a friend (Score:4, Interesting)
Where can someone buy one of those hyper-face t-shirts?
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Send the image to one of those custom t-shirt sites?
Re: Asking for a friend (Score:4, Informative)
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The hyperface pattern is not even fooling my Galaxy S9 camera - not a single face detected when pointing at it. :-(
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Need to win some money and buy several boxes of these to hand out for free....
Want privacy? (Score:4, Insightful)
Wear a burqa. You essentially turn into Casper the friendly ghost, and nobody can say anything to you because of the insane level of protection afforded to anything religious.
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Wear a burqa.
I used to work on projects for one of the "agencies" in Europe.
What do you think that their tech can detect small nuances in Burkas . . . ?
You could be Osama bin Ladan's 15th wife, travel with a Burka, and still be stopped at the security check.
Re:Want privacy? (Score:5, Informative)
You could be Osama bin Ladan's 15th wife, travel with a Burka, and still be stopped at the security check.
If you're in a security check manned by humans, there is not much chance for you.
The goal here is to avoid automated detection by autonomous cameras.
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"You could be Osama bin Ladan's 15th wife, travel with a Burka, and still be stopped at the security check."
Small wonder, they stop all of them at the security check.
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Were your systems targetting the burqua or the person under it? E.g. things like patterns in the weaving, stitch counts and stitching locations to identify a specific burqua and assume (? with qualifications) that the same person is wearing that burqua today as was wearing it yesterday. Or things like gait analysis (leg length, tendency to lead off with the left foot, slight dip to right when turning to left, that sort of thing) to
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"You could be Osama bin Ladan's 15th wife, travel with a Burka, and still be stopped at the security check."
Or the bad guys could have all their followers put her "face" on their clothes and may the detectors go off so often a real sighting may be discarded as a false positive.
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If I wanted to become a letterbox person I'd move to the middle east.
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Become a letterbox person in the middle east, or be put under constant surveillance by cryptofascist governmental agencies in the US. Pick your poison.
None of the two options are good, but what I'm saying is, sadly it's come to this choice.
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Oh boy, I must have missed this. Ok, get us up to date: what they now allowed to wear anymore?
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Not sure what you're talking about here. Several places in europe are trying to ban the burqa, which I would not call a high level of protection. Just because Muslims are not banned in the US because of constitutional protections does not mean Christians and Jews are not being protected by the same rights.
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Are you assuming my religion?
Or my gender?
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Re: Want privacy? (Score:2)
Wear a burqa.
Or better yet, a license plate with random letters and numbers next to a random face compiled in such a manner that it creates a face on a license plate.
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... insane level of protection ...
Is it because of "burqa," or because "anything religious" is "insane?"
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You could also go the full Daft Punk route.
That... (Score:3, Informative)
...isn't how it works. Basically the plates are stored in a database and to do a search you type in the plate number and it brings up all the images of the plate. In half a second the person doing the search would discard the false images. There are plenty of false/wrong images already in plate databases. It doesn't make it any harder for the systems because ultimately a human is looking at the images. Idiots like this invariably carry around phones, which are much more invasive. Defcon is full of posers.
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Perhaps that money could have been spent on competent IT staff, the kind that would actually make sure their ticketing systems wouldn't catch-all NULL to a real person.
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My guess is the "NULL" license plate thing is a myth perpetuated by a guy who wanted attention. Anyhow, yes it is nothing. Imagine I have plate XXX and there are false plates YYY and ZZZ in the system. How does that affect the tracking of plate XXX? It doesn't. Unless you have a system that is injecting fake reports of plate XXX it would make zero difference. The idiot in the photo had plates of words of the 4th amendment (which doesn't even apply to license plate tracking).
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If I ever bothered to spend money on a custom plate, I'd go with something like 0OI1ll
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It would be more believable if he had somehow managed to register a blank plate and then got assigned all the orphaned tickets with no plate field.
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It sounds like a repeat of "No Plates" [snopes.com]. Of course, just because the original story was true: does Not necessarily mean that every later reported spinoff was
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You got an article on that fellow? He's a fucking genius.
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It's at the bottom of TFA.
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They would have had to cancel those tickets anyway, as they had no idea who they should have been assigned to. The NULL guy only highlighted the problem and got them to clean out the corrupt entries from their database.
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From which we deduce the database programmer trained on Microsoft products. IF CAM_IMAGE = NULL THEN...
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The licence plate database has more than one purpose.
You forgot about automatic detection, where someone wanted on outstanding arrest warrants cruises down the street showing off, and the nearest police cruiser is notified that BADBOY666 has just turned left into main st. False positives fed by fakes like this will lead to a waste of police time and resources, when BADBOY666 is just an image on a t-shirt.
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It's a proof of concept. It demonstrates that these kinds of systems can be fooled. More effective attacks can now be developed.
So the tech will advance.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Let us assume that this becomes a fashion trend and everyone starts wearing dresses with license plates on them...
They'll upgrade the software to recognize vehicles first - then look for license plates on them. This chick didn't do anything heroic, she actually helped the system get better. It will cost more in hardware - but that was coming anyway.....the budget included enough money to implement the ALPR system, and they don't want to lose that budget - now they'll pay more for better hardware to run the more intensive software that ignores dresses.
If you don't want to be tracked, don't go places that track you. While you're at it, turn off your phone, and get off the internet. You're being tracked - and that isn't going away any time soon.
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Even if everyone wore clothing with license plates on them, how would it help? If I am searching for plate XYZ it will find it. You can throw as many fake license plates as you want into the system and it will still find the target plate. Most plate databases have about 70% "incorrect" data in them, but it doesn't matter for the end use of the information (search). I am convinced that so many "experts" really have no idea how computer systems work.
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By having your license plate number on a skirt. Or, other way around, getting a license plate number that is on the skirt.
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Placing the license plate *under* the skirt, rather than on the car, would be even more effective.
I've encountered people here (Las Vegas) who have gone years without plates on their cars (some even have the plates in the trunk!).
Cars *without* plates are rare pulled over. *Expired* by a couple of months is another story . . ..
hawk
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Re:So the tech will advance.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Would you post the list of all the places with hidden tracker cameras so we can follow your advice? Thx.
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Most of those cameras are mounted on traffic lights - for all the world to see. To make them weather proof, they end up in large mounts in clusters on tall poles and on overpasses. It's a safe bet that if the road has more than 1 traffic light, or it's a freeway or highway - it's got a camera.
Would you post the list of all the places with hidden tracker cameras so we can follow your advice? Thx.
You're welcome.
Cameras aren't hard to find, the ones connected to the ALPR systems anyway.
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The sprays, the covers, etc, are
Re:So the tech will advance.... (Score:4, Interesting)
The sprays, the covers, etc, are generally ineffective. They don't work at all. The reflective ones don't work unless the camera has a light source, and the covers generally don't produce useful blocking because the camera is usually at the wrong angle.
Heck, even the mythbusters tried it probably a decade ago and the photos were still nice and clear. And people with real speed cameras have tried it many times to no avail as well.
Lasers work - if you aim it at the lens, you can blind the camera using the same phenomenon that causes lens flare. But you have to aim it fairly precisely dead center because you want the lens flare to cover the entire sensor - uncovered spots will image just fine.
As for high powered lasers, unless it's really high for long enough, the sensor will be fine as it's behind a real mechanical shutter. They do generally use commodity DSLRs after all. Perhaps you'll burn through the shutter eventually and cause the sensor to get a few dead pixels. But if you're going to do that, you might as well just get spraypaint and paint the glass on the enclosure. Or use a shotgun to shatter the outer layer of glass and cover it in cracks so its photos are obscured
You guys are way over-thinking this.
Far simpler, less legally dangerous, and *far* less attention-attracting would be to use a paintball gun. Use a (preferably rather loud) truck with an open-top and walled rear cargo area during rush hour heavy traffic (for the traffic light mounted cameras above intersections visible from within the defilade of the walled cargo area) and nobody nearby will likely see or hear anything.
Strat
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Use a (preferably rather loud) truck with an open-top and walled rear cargo area during rush hour heavy traffic (for the traffic light mounted cameras above intersections visible from within the defilade of the walled cargo area) and nobody nearby will likely see or hear anything.
You forgot to mention: Find someone who can fire paintballs with pinpoint precision from a moving vehicle. That combination of hardware and skills is probably pretty rare.
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No, most paintball guns are not full auto because most paintball fields prohibit them. Players get around it by installing special trigger and hopper systems that allow them to achieve high rates of fire.
I used to play paintball all the time. Full auto is frowned upon because it takes the fun out of the game for those who can't afford such toys (which is most everyone...full auto paintball guns are expensive)
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Surround the license place with high powered IR LEDs that are driven with randomized pulse width modulation.
Asking for trouble... (Score:2)
The sprays, the covers, etc, are generally ineffective. They don't work at all. The reflective ones don't work unless the camera has a light source, and the covers generally don't produce useful blocking because the camera is usually at the wrong angle.
I think it's kind of funny when I see people that have sprayed their license plate. You can get ticketed for obscuring the numbers/letters (depending on your state laws), which is what that paint does. Even a lot of those covers are questionable. So now you've probably just set yourself up for more hassle/fines if you get stopped/ticketed.
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Automatic number plate recognition cameras don't use flashes.
Obscuring your number plate from a camera that does use a flash will merely cause them to look at the ANPR images to find out which idiot needs prosecuting for more than just whatever the camera flash was trying to capture.
Re:So the tech will advance.... (Score:5, Insightful)
This chick didn't do anything heroic, she actually helped the system get better.
Even if the clothing doesn't have a lot of technical merit, wearing it is a political statement that raises awareness of our increasing surveillance society. In my opinion, that alone is a win.
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The stated purpose was to cause strain on the system and require human intervention. I have my doubts that the software developers will give up because of a dress. Maybe she raises awareness, maybe she doesn't...I have my doubts that sheep are aware of (or capable of being interested in) the intentions of she shepherd.
You shouldn't have an expectation of privacy while in public. This is why clothing isn't optional while in public places.
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I'm wondering how they will get enough people to overwhelm the system.
That will never happen. As soon as it gets to be a slightly annoying problem, they'll update the software to work around it.
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Don't go places that track you ... like ... say ... everywhere but my home?
It's not like you can avoid certain surveillance spots, total surveillance is here, and coming to a place near you, too. How do you want to avoid this? Stay at home and work from there? Ups, telco keeping a track on the phone calls I make and the servers I connect to. Order from home so nobody watches me shop? Nope, there's a record of everything I buy online, too.
Please tell me how you'd say I could avoid being tracked.
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There aren't any ANPR or traffic cameras in my town. When I want to be anonymous online, I use an offshore VPN service. You can buy cheap prepaid phones for cash at the corner store... Anyone sufficiently motivated and mentally prepared to remain anonymous can do so.
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From TFA:
I was shocked it was so easy, and I would call on people who think these systems are critical to find better ways to do that verification.
So yes, it was her intention to test the limitations of these systems in the hope that they would be improved.
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What was High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas funding is going great for tech spending all over the USA
PRISM and the NSA did the rest.
A Week (Score:2)
...is about how much time I estimate it will take for software to be updated to deal with these...distractions.
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It's a game of money. How long 'til it is considered a waste of money to keep the system updated.
Aww (Score:2)
You know things have gone to hell... (Score:1)
Dangerous... (Score:2)
Going around wearing something designed to look like license plates is at best useless, and at worst actively dangerous...
The camera is going to read those plates, and record that a number of vehicles have been seen... It's then going to look those plates up against a database of license plates issued by the vehicle licensing authority that covers the area.
If those plates don't match any registered vehicle, then the results are likely to just be discarded as errors.
If they do match real vehicles however, th
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How about collecting a list of license plates in the State Capital's parking lot? Or the judge's reserved parking spaces?
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where vehicles are not allowed you could potentially result in an automated fine being sent to the vehicle owner.
I have a thought.... Build a crowdsourced list to develop a MASSIVE pool of license plate numbers - belonging specifically to officials of large cities, Executives/Officials at the companies that make Plate reader software, Judges, Legislators, Lawyers, Traffic enforcement officials, and high-ranking executive officials.
And mass-printed on each piece of clothing and adhesive stickers
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That's right... And in this case, they may become more aware of the effects of their policies -- if they are personally one of the people to be erroneously targeted by system they have a hand in making or supporting or not taking action against. These people might be more inclined to understand the potential issues before they blindly allow people to be seriously inconvenienced or penalized solely on the determination of some automated system.
For example --- more states might start banning the for-
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charge you a fee
You have a strange concept of danger.
Useful false positives (Score:2)
I guess it would be more disruptive, or at least funny, to wear t-shirts with a print of Xi Jinpings and other high potentates' faces, and then cross pedestrian crossings when red in China.
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Disruptive is the right word. Try that and see how they disrupt your life
This will last all of about 2 weeks (Score:2)
You can retrain algorithms and they will become better at rejecting these false positives. There are already t-shirts out there with facsimiles of license plate, most custom t-shirt places have a template for "license plated apparel" for several states, schools and sports teams.
So a bunch of virtue signaling is going on but no real solution. The face scarf isn't detectable on my phone although some simplistic algorithms do detect it, but even there, how many Bob Marley and Che Guevara t-shirts aren't out th
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You can retrain algorithms and they will become better at rejecting these false positives.
You're probably right... on the other hand, the "false positives" can be refined as well.
They might eventually have to attach them to the front or back of vehicles; however, to be effective --- and that is potentially a bit problematic,
as in the states might have laws against having a bumper sticker that looks like an official license plate.
Nothing new under the sun (Score:2)
After Bill Gibson and Bruce Sterling came up with the "ugly t-shirt", a pattern that would erase itself from digital surveillance recordings, for Zero History back in 2010, a bunch [wired.com] of designers jumped on the idea - this one [wired.com] looks more ingenious than anything in the OP and it's five years old!
Bring on the test data! (Score:2)
system is flawed, we knew this already... (Score:1)
...from the old "drop tables" SQL inj license plate.
The next level evil is to go and pull APB plates from lists like amber alerts, print plates that match the numbers and states and sticker them onto fences, lightpoles, buildings, etc. and demonstrate that the system is flawed and cause havoc on the system... we all know this, she simply created commentary that it can be done in a less evil way that makes a statement about surveillance in public.