I recently had the opportunity to help run a stand at one of the Science Museum in London, Lates sessions with some colleagues.
The topic of the table was “Privacy vs National Security”. This was a drop in table to provoke discussion around this topic. The main point of this topic was to engage with the general public and understand their view points whilst discussing things in the news and the consequences that happen.
The brief was “Where does privacy start and end? How do you protect privacy and also provide national security? How do you monitor the bad guy? What do you think?”
The discussions ranged from the recent stories around the facial recognition cameras at Kings Cross, London to GDPR Post Brexit and is Alexa listening to everything I am doing?. A wide range of discussions. The discussions were going on and engaging that we still discussing as we dismantled the stand and left the Museum. the topics covered were discussed at length and I will write some future blog posts on some of these.
As well as the discussion I had a Raspberry Pi 4 and a USB Camera running Tensorflow and OpenCV to perform a level of people recognition displaying on a large screen in the Museum. This also helped generate conversation on the night and bring people onto the stand.
By the end of the evening we really did have a Night at the Museum, but without the exhibits coming to life.
If you are in London on a last Wednesday of the month I recommend that you visit the Lates sessions at the Museum. Book early as spaces do go quickly.
https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/see-and-do/lates
If you have any thoughts on the topic, please add comments on this post.
Love it or Hate it Facial Recognition technology is here to stay. What is now being recongnised is a need for governance and controls over systems that use it and in line with any current country legislations and data laws.
It it just me or is this on the rise? Recently I have noticed an increase in the number of scam phone calls that I have been receiving on my land line and on mobile. All from different countries and trying various scams to get information, money or both.
I have decided to be a lemming and follow everyone in the move to equipping my car with Dashcams. Although not a new thing a recent boom in the use of cameras in vehicles has made this now a very common practice to have one. It is easy to fit a Dashcam to any vehicle to record the driving habits of the driver and other road users.
With the typical home now being enticed into the world of the “Smart Home”, IoT (Internet of Things) and Connected Everything the number of hubs being offered with each service is growing.
Have you every gone to the app store and just installed something on there because it looks good and something you want to look at, or purchased a product and then installed the app without thinking or checking it out first? Lots of people do, but do they really know what is going on under the covers?
There are many and apps available to help us automate basic tasks on our mobiles and computing devices. When choosing these tools, we often read reviews and then download the app, run and set up, then let it run its tasks accepting that it will carry out our requirements. But what happens when there is an issue.
There are lots of voice activated tools and services now available from software on your PC and in your car to physical hardware you can place around your home. These devices are becoming everyday occurrences, “Alexa, whats the weather”, “Siri, recipe for Chocolate Cake” (too many to list).
Its always great when you get a phone call saying “Hello, I’m calling from Microsoft and we have noticed a problem with your computer”. My inner kid springs to life and its time to string on the scammers.
Reports from CES 2017 is seeing some great advancements in consumer tech coming out in the journey to digital. Coupled with some recent reports from around the web I have been thinking about the question “How secure is my home in the digital age?”