UK Transport Department Caught Monitoring People's Emotions
The State was secretly using cameras in a bid to know what was going on in people's minds
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 in side 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.
Who authorises this stuff??
I’m just waiting for an independent Artifical Intelligence program to get hold of this data and start using it to improve things. After all, the politicians have failed for years - maybe AI will do a better job. Although its entirely likely that a rational AI will decide we are beyond help, and better off being eliminated althogether.