Sukhpinder SinghMy Thoughts to Protect Privacy
A mask designed to deny AI-based facial recognition from all angles.
I have always been a pretty private person, but lately, the weight of it feels as unbearable as ever. I just can’t seem to get out with a feeling of people watching me every time. It is no paranoia but just the plain reality of living in a place where face recognition has become an easy technological tool. And when you turn around the shiny lenses of cameras pop up everywhere-from street corners and shop windows to public events. It is as if my face has become a commodity something that is cataloged and analyzed.
I remember when I first heard about AI facial recognition systems. It was a news update, on a cold autumn evening. I was holding hot tea, covered by a blanket, scanning my phone as it scrolled its screen. The anchor spoke confidently about such systems wherein one could identify a person in seconds, revealing his personal history and preferences without ever knowing him or her. Shivers run through my spine. Over time, it had nothing to do with cameras; it’s who I am, my preferences, and -sold to the highest bidder.
Already available on Amazon
The more you know, the more you feel that you are one rat in an experiment into which you certainly have yet to sign up. Every day, you hear stories of people whose lives have been picked apart by algorithms because they happened to pass in front of surveillance cameras. I could envision my face torn into pieces. All the wrinkles and blemishes would be magnified, and reduced to mere data points. It was like living in some science fiction dystopia where the government and corporations pulled all the strings. Everything I said would not matter.
Somehow it pierced my life: the thought of being checked on all the time. I stopped walking around places, and wouldn’t even go to the park with “intelligent” cameras installed; instead, only shop from small stores where no security footage was even installed. It was draining. I would consider changing my appearance completely by getting a new hair color and wearing different hats and sunglasses just so I’d feel like I ain't being exposed so much. Deep down, however, I realized that wasn't just a Band-Aid on a much bigger issue.
Something appeared on the internet one afternoon: a mask designed to evade facial recognition. I read through all the details about it greedily: special confusing materials for algorithms, interesting patterns distorting features, and even changing colors with light. This is something straight out of a future film, and my heart skips a beat. Perhaps this was my chance to get my private life back.
I told them I wanted one. And when it came, I ripped open the package and looked at it with eagerness and skepticism. It didn’t resemble anything I’d ever worn before, this psychotropic swirling look and shape. I put it on and looked into the mirror. It felt marvelous wearing something that was a symbol of resistance against constant surveillance. Finally a semblance of confidence after months and this mask of theirs that’s now my defense against a world turned mad on breaking into one’s life.
The next time I dared to go out, I wore the mask with pride. My head held high, I went to step out into the streets, feeling to myself that I was at least free to do as I pleased. Even so, passing by familiar buildings did not still the nagging doubt in the back of my head. What if this attracted more onlookers? Perhaps it would have made people start wondering about me. It was a time of empowerment and fear reminding me I was fighting a battle uphill against something invisible.
I knew that something in the air around me had shifted because people looked at me with that unmistakable gaze; some stared while others whispered behind each other’s ears. There was no feeling of being safe anymore but exposed in a whole new way, for the mask became a beacon and a declaration of wariness of the world around me, and that alone seemed to be drawing attention.
I realized at that moment that it wasn’t about staying secret, but rather about being seen. Not to attention to myself but just to walk around the world and not automatically be placed under the spotlight for others’ exhibitions. And I knew that although the mask protected me from recognition by AI, it could not save society from judgment and shame of my uniqueness.
So I tried to balance my two states of being. Less and less was I wearing the mask. In its place, a simple scarf or oversized sunglasses became my new accessory. My scope narrowed down to small things that helped keep my privacy: change messaging apps to encrypted services, block location-sharing features on your devices, and tell your community to ask for stronger privacy laws. Each movement, in its way, was a token of regained agency, but each battle seemed impossible to win.
One night, over a cup of coffee in a café, I heard a group of friends grappling with the same fears as me. They talked about not feeling right with surveillance on them and began gathering stories of moments when they felt viewed in locations where they probably shouldn’t be viewed. A relief-it wasn't just me. Ideas on how to deal and we spoke about the potential of obliterating technology rather than our rights.
I realized through that conversation perhaps that I was suffering in a state of isolation, while a movement was growing of people who shared similar concerns. Maybe the future wasn’t as dark as I thought. The more people began talking about the need for private lives, the more this would breed an awareness of the need for solutions, perhaps like the anti-facial recognition mask, and then the change.
I still fear to open my private life to the public, and my mask continues to remain within that journey. It is a reminder of where the battlefield lies-between liberties and technological surveillance. I cannot possibly destroy it from within, but I can fight for my right to exist without people watching me all the time.
In such a digital world, it feels like such a heavy struggle to fight for privacies, but every little one counts. So, for now, I will continue to find more ways to protect my identity as I form bonds with people who share my concerns, hoping together we can make privacy not just a choice but something that is owed.
