Checklist: Irritate biometric systems

People demonstrating wearing t-shirts with facial recognition irritation, people consciously avoiding unintended data traces are an emerging form of activism.

Try out some of these strategies:

Dress to Unimpress: Wear dark and pattern-free clothing.
Wear sunglasses that block infrared light.
Don’t use a car (license plate detection).
Try to hide your body temperature.
Remove metadata like location tags from your photos, blur faces on pictures.
Paint patterns on your face in order to distort the face recognition algorithm.
Partially obscure the ocular region – the position and darkness of eyes is a key facial feature.
Wear clothing, for example, t-shirts with patterns that look like faces or a mask with another face.
Remain inconspicuous – for camouflage to function, it must not be perceived as a mask or disguise.
Avoid enhancers (e.g., lipstick, eye gloss, or mascara).

A hands-on workshop on facial recognition that explores identity, gender presentation, face surveillance, artificial intelligence, and algorithmic harms. On the website of the Algorithm Justice League, you might also request material if you’d like to conduct such a workshop in your context. https://www.ajl.org/drag-vs-ai