Amazon Rekognition Software Secretly Monitored People’s Emotions Using AI and Facial Recognition in UK

by Rhoda Wilson | The Exposé

During the past two years, eight train stations around the UK tested artificial intelligence (“AI”) surveillance technology with CCTV cameras.  Thousands of people catching trains likely had their faces scanned by cameras at ticket barriers with the data sent to Amazon Rekognition for analysis.

The AI trials used a combination of “smart” CCTV cameras that can detect objects or movements from images they capture and older cameras that have their video feeds connected to cloud-based analysis.  The image recognition system was used to predict travellers’ age, gender and potential emotions with the suggestion that the data could be used in advertising systems in the future.

As Wired reported on Monday, AI researchers have frequently warned that using the technology to detect emotions is “unreliable,” and some say the technology should be banned due to the difficulty of working out how someone may be feeling from audio or video. In October 2022, the UK’s data regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office, issued a public statement warning against the use of emotion analysis, saying the technologies are “immature” and “they may not work yet, or indeed ever.”

The scope of the AI trials, elements of which have previously been reported, was revealed in a cache of documents obtained in response to a freedom of information request by civil liberties group Big Brother Watch.

In its article about the matter, the Daily Mail has included a section about what to do if you think you have been filmed.  Read HERE.

Below, James Macpherson captures the mood of the general public regarding “Dystopian Rail” secretly using cameras in a bid to know what was going on in people’s minds.

By James Macpherson

CCTV cameras installed at UK train stations have been secretly used to monitor people’s emotions.

The cameras were originally installed at 8 stations in a bid to reduce anti-social behaviour.

But the most anti-social people are, as always, our authoritarian overlords.

Our betters in government departments decided they would use the cameras to scan people’s expressions, and record whether they were happy, angry or sad.

Because it’s not enough for the government to know where you’re going. They need to know what’s going on inside your head.

I think it’s fair to say that train travellers, upon discovering their emotions were being monitored, are now uniformly pissed off!

Let Mr. Conductor put THAT in his little black book!

Network Rail insist they were only ever using the Amazon technology to check customer satisfaction.

Am I now feeling extreme amusement, or incredulity?

Take a picture and find out Big Brother!

Dystopian Rail could have determined people’s emotions by simply checking the percentage of trains running on time.

But that’s so 1980s (By which I most certainly do not mean 1984).

Why provide the service you’re supposed to provide, when you can snoop on people’s expressions and … wait for it … use the data to “maximise advertising and retail revenue,” as Network Rail reluctantly admitted was another objective.

But seriously, trust us, the main thing was making sure everyone was happy.

Yeah, right.

The secret trial was revealed in documents produced after a freedom of information request by Big Brother Watch, a civil liberties group.

The documents show that stalkers, er, staff within Network Rail did take a moment to wonder whether or not their weird-ass project was appropriate.

They asked … “Are some people likely to object or find it intrusive?”

Hmmm. Good question.

Will anyone in the UK think being filmed by an increasingly totalitarian State to determine their “emotional state” is, er, intrusive?

One of the answers provided was … “Typically no, but there is no accounting for some people.”

Ah yes, some people!

Imagine people being annoyed that the government would secretly use cameras in a bid to know what was going on in their minds!

The good news is that there’s now no need for them to continue monitoring the people’s emotions since everyone is feeling exactly the same way – pissed off.

James Macpherson, a well-recognised Australian journalist, is the host of the Late Debate on Sky News Australia.  He is a regular contributor to The Spectator Australia, Rebel News, Sky News and publishes articles on his Substack Page which you can subscribe to and follow HERE. He is the author of the book ‘Notes from Woketopia: Laying Bare the Lunacy of Woke Culture’.