Tools to evade AI-powered surveillance: Are they effective? You might cover or obscure your face, but that can get you in trouble with the cops. - Privacy activists are developing tools to evade facial recognition as police surveillance networks expand across the United States. - Bill Swearingen says his noRecognition pattern blocked Flock cameras after 31 million tests and a Def Con demonstration. - Masks, infrared eyewear, makeup, and adversarial clothing can disrupt some systems, but each has limits and legal risks. - New systems using gait and body-shape analysis may identify people even when faces are hidden or unclear. Key Takeaways by nexos.ai, reviewed by Cybernews staff. With concern over ever-smarter yet often poorly regulated facial recognition software growing worldwide, a clan of privacy activists and researchers is building tools that can fool such invasive surveillance-enabling technology. Roughly 1 in every 3 American adults is indexed in police facial recognition networks. “Most never consented, were never informed, and have no way to opt out,” says Bill Swearingen, a cyber professional from Kansas City. “Their faces were scraped from driver's license photos, mugshot databases, and public records, then fed into AI systems that can identify them in real time from any camera feed.” Since AI is error-prone, the systems produce much higher match rates for darker-skinned individuals. Check if your data has been leaked This, of course, means that people who, at least in the US, already face the most aggressive policing, are “also the people most likely to be wrongly identified by the technology justifying that policing,” Swearingen points out. 31 million tests and a pattern Indeed, the world already looks pretty dystopian. The cameras built by ambitious cop-friendly companies like Flock Safety are everywhere now (and the CEO wants more), and the databases are vast: we didn’t opt-in,