ATM AND IMAGE RECONGITION

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  SANDY SANDFORT               Reply to:  ssandfort@attmail.com
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Just a minor quibble to Tim May's otherwise excellent post on ATM
cameras and image recognition.  Tim said:

    Comment: The case of banks having cameras doesn't bother
    me much at all, as the bank already knows exactly who
    its customers are. That is, the surveillance is not used
    to gather any information the bank does not already have
    immediate and complete access to.

Not quite true.  One very good privacy technique is to use an ATM
or credit card issued to someone else.  How can this be done?
Well, a friend (preferably a visiting foreigner) could do it for
you.  Or you could hire a bum (pardon; "hygienically challenged
person") to do the honors.  At any rate, you wouldn't want to get
busted by an image recognizing ATM, now would you?

 S a n d y

         "Privacy Consultation and Services since 1978"
             (Sorry Duncan, got you beat by a mile)

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Sandy Sandfort writes:

> Not quite true.  One very good privacy technique is to use an ATM
> or credit card issued to someone else.  How can this be done?
> Well, a friend (preferably a visiting foreigner) could do it for
> you.  Or you could hire a bum (pardon; "hygienically challenged
> person") to do the honors.  At any rate, you wouldn't want to get
> busted by an image recognizing ATM, now would you?

OK, you got me here. I wasn't thinking of cases where you might want
to deceive your own bank!

By the way, the folks you referred to as bums no longer like to be
called the "hygienically challenged." Now in vogue is "differently
odored."

Only a few days ago in sci.astro I had to correct someone who was
using the unacceptable term "brown dwarf." My Politically Correct
Online Dictionary automatically corrected that to the more sensitive
term "differently-sized star of color."

(To non-U.S. residents to whom this joke may be puzzling, "cripples"
became "handicapped," then "disabled," then "physically challenged,"
and are now, last time I heard, to be called "differently abled.")

The only real Cypherpunks links are the general political aspects and
the very important issue that in cyherspace we'll be able to be as
politically incorrect and oafish as we wish. The anonyomous remailers
are just the start. Of course, the easily offended will also have the
easy option of tuning out speech they don't want to hear.

I'll take the "technology of disconnection" (Kevin Kelly, "Whole Earth
Review") over "electronic democracy" any day.

-Tim

-- 
..........................................................................
Timothy C. May         | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,  
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Note: I put time and money into writing this posting. I hope you enjoy it.