Masks - the last bastion of privacy

Now that the pandemic is old news, masks use is rapidly declining, at least in NYC. It seems New Yorkers are over the COVID-19 fear, having contracted it several times by now. The current variant (for a vaccinated person) feels like a tiny flu, or maybe a cold. Five days of days of peace and quiet. Let's hope new variants don't become more severe again. But, I also hope that masks don't go away.

Masks are not required, but many people wear them anyway — maybe for the fear of Monkeypox…

An interesting side-effect of wearing a mask, one not talked about (or at least not to me) is that if you wear a mask, you are not as easily tracked by the surveillance state.

Every block in Manhattan seems to have one of those big displays with a USB charging station and internet access tablet. What many don't realize is that each one of these devices has cameras facing in every direction. I did not know about it until I saw one being serviced, and there it was - a camera just above the screen, 10 feet up in the air.

Facial recognition these days is pretty good, and as I pointed out before, the NY Police Department's budget is more than double that of the Ukraine military budget - approaching 11 billion dollars. That buys some good tech.

Not long ago it was practically illegal to wear a mask in places like Las Vegas hotels. The reason I know is because I was there for MineCon (back when Minecraft was a new thing and my kids were excited to go). Wearing a box on my head caused a small security panic and people with guns asked us not to do so again.

Wearing a mask is a simple act of protest. I don't think facial recognition systems work well with 3/4 of the face covered. Until they can retina-scan you from 40 meters away, a mask should be able to defeat facial recognition systems.

I find it amusing that the very subgroup of the population that does not want the 'govmint in our business' refused to wear masks, and protested loudly. What a missed opportunity! On the other hand, politicians pushing for anti-mask regulatiuons are pursuing an anti-privacy pro-tracking agenda, even if they don't say so outright.

So I try to wear a mask in heavily-surveilled areas, just to do my part. Maybe you should too. There is a small window to regain the right to cover your face, for whatever reason. And it might help with monkeypox.

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