Seeing things like this make me extremely glad to be moving to an area where any attempt at this would (literally) be shot down. I'm already subject to intense surveillance, at least have the decency to be subtle about it.
Illinois has been very litigious about facial recognition, and has passed laws against it - while simultaneously creating a new state ID photo policy that requires you to remove your glasses and not to smile, in order to maximize utility for facial recognition.
Anybody thinking that they're safe from this is wrong. Maybe there's an incorruptible politician in Iceland somewhere.
I know of at least one country that has had 'no face coverings & neutral expression' for ID photos for many many years, before computer facial recognition was really practical, possible or existed at all.
I have recently begun to think that people will start migrating (like, literally, over borders) because of stuff like this and because of Government/state officials over-reach. There are still some pockets inside of the US where there's a semblance of normalcy left, but I'd say most of the EU (from where I'm from) has already gone too far on that road to ever come back.
I'm currently in upstate NY, and I am moving because of my state government. My immediate family all moved to Europe. I want to be left alone and enjoy life with people I like. New York is no longer compatible with that goal.
Recently, it became a felony to own a bulletproof vest in NY. My (middle-class) neighborhood has gunshots on my street regularly during the summer. That's absurd, and I'm not sticking around to find out how much worse it gets.
