Privacy by design: How fashion combats surveillance
Scott Urban didn't intend to make a fashion statement about digital privacy. In fact, when the Chicagoan started making eyeglasses in 2005, his handmade聽聽frames invoked a time of craftsmanship long before computers.
After a customer asked if he could design glasses to make cyclists more visible at night,听Mr. Urban began experimenting with plastics and resins.听His work with reflective聽eyewear聽began as concerns about growing level of urban surveillance mounted in cities such as Chicago.
When he launched a聽Kickstarter campaign for what he calls聽聽this past fall, it didn't take long for someone to ask: Had Urban聽considered his glasses as anti-surveillance accessories? It was like a light bulb coming on.听
鈥淚 spent the next month doing nothing but recalculating and making new content for the site,鈥� he says. He created a version of Reflectacles called Ghost designed to protect wearers from video surveillance. 鈥淭here are a lot of people out there who鈥檇 be really interested in not being seen by surveillance, and I鈥檓 one of those people.鈥�
As surveillance technologies become increasingly commonplace, and advanced, many privacy-conscious designers such as Urban are coming up with new ways of disrupting facial recognition software, and they are getting support. Reflectacles' Kickstarter campaign raised $41,315,听nearly 50 percent more than its goal, and聽Mr.听Urban plans to ship the glasses in June.听
"I鈥檝e always been a completely private person,"聽Mr.听Urban says. "I鈥檓 not a tin foil hat wearer, but I see the way the world works. Symbolically, the Reflectacles Ghost is a stance against mass surveillance."
As the name suggests, Reflectacles reflect visible light such as聽camera flashes and car headlights, but the Ghost version also reflects infrared light.听When Urban finished his Ghost prototype, 鈥淚 went over to a little bodega corner shop and had them look at me on their camera. They couldn鈥檛 see me,鈥� he says. "They were like, 'What did you turn on?'" The glare made him utterly unrecognizable.听
Another project that aims to mask an individual's identity with聽disruptive reflections is聽, an antiflash clothing line six years in the making from London-based designer Saif Siddiqui. His interest in privacy was piqued by the rise of paparazzi culture.
"If you go out to a club or bar these days, there are cameras everywhere," he says. "I feel like a human being has a right to their privacy, and this came from that."
He makes his scarves and clothing reflective by using prismatic metallic ink. It's attracted the attention of celebrities such as Jay-Z, who included some limited-edition ISHU products in a recent New York City pop-up store.
"Going invisible is a superpower," Mr. Siddiqui says. "Being mysterious and being private is the physical manifestation of going dark on social media."
Adam Harvey, an artist known for raising issues related to digital privacy, debuted his聽latest project聽at the Sundance Film Festival:聽聽is a series of patterned textiles designed to confuse specific facial recognition algorithms. He created it for interaction design studio Hyphen Labs'聽, a聽project that examines how black women will interact with technology in the future.
HyperFace Camouflage is a natural extension of Harvey's CV Dazzle project, which was part of his thesis at New York University鈥檚 Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), an interdisciplinary master鈥檚 program that draws together designers, artists, engineers and computer scientists. CV Dazzle aimed to confuse a facial recognition system with avant-garde hairstyles and makeup.听
Two current ITP students are following in his footsteps聽to create artistic interventions in response the lack of biometric privacy in public spaces.
Rebecca Ricks and Shir David sewed electronics into the brim of a ball cap that shine infrared light onto the wearer鈥檚 face, invisible to the naked eye but making the face an illuminated blur when seen through an infrared camera. They call the project聽.听
Ms.听David explains they also considered a shoe that could alter your gait, but after they got in touch with a New York University (NYU) professor specializing in biometrics, Nasir Memon, they decided to play with infrared light.听
鈥淲e wanted to create something that wouldn鈥檛 call attention to the user wearing it,鈥澛燤s.听Ricks says. 鈥淚t鈥檇 be something you鈥檇 see someone on the street wearing. We wanted to disrupt in a way that wouldn鈥檛 disturb others.鈥�
The duo quickly prototyped some hats with LEDs and tested them using surveillance cameras in their building that students are able to access and control. They succeeded in making the person wearing the hat unidentifiable by Google鈥檚 facial recognition algorithms.
鈥淭he image from the camera looks like a tiny halo,鈥� Ms. David says. 鈥淓ven if you could see a tiny ghost over there, it鈥檚 just a glowing over your face.鈥�
They might continue improving on the project or making DIY kits, but for now they鈥檙e satisfied that their project got a passing grade.
鈥淎s people make tools to subvert technology, technology gets more advanced,鈥澛燤s.听Ricks says. 鈥淚f we know cameras are going to be more advanced in a year, is there still a point in making it? We decided it鈥檚 still important to build the tools and make these wearables. It鈥檚 a tool, but it鈥檚 also a statement.鈥�
鈥淭he tech is changing so much that existing tools of subversion have to change,鈥� she聽says. 鈥淔acial recognition algorithms are getting smarter, so we have to determine what the weak points are. ...听When you have a password stolen you can always change the password, but when it comes to biometrics, your fingerprint is something you always have."
And physiological biometrics such as irises and fingerprints are just the beginning. Mr. Memon, the NYU professor,听says behavioral biometrics, such as gait and posture and even how you interact with a smartphone, are growing in importance.
鈥淭he way you perform a gesture has some distinctive characteristics,鈥� he explains. 鈥淎 pinch gesture or a slide or a scroll.鈥� It might not be unique, but it is distinctive enough to differentiate between multiple users of the same screen.听
鈥淭here are times when anonymity is something that is essential,鈥� Mr. Memon says. 鈥淎 healthy society should provide some means for citizens to interact anonymously when they choose to,鈥� for example when protesting.
He鈥檇 been telling his students to create something like the Unidentified Halo project for a long time, but it wasn鈥檛 until Ricks and David approached him that it came to fruition. 鈥淒eep learning is wonderful, but what we鈥檙e finding out is that it鈥檚 brittle, it can fall apart with the right poke,鈥澛燤emon says. Disrupting surveillance technology 鈥渋s a cat-and-mouse game, but it鈥檚 a game worth playing.鈥�
