Protest against the introduction of identificational video surveillance

We want to protest against the introduction of video surveillance services, which will be tested starting at the 1. August at am Berliner Bahnhof Südkreuz - and we did that today.

Rally on Tue, 1.8.17 from 15-18h
in front of the (west) entrance to the station Südkreuz, Hildegard-Knef-Platz

Content

• Report from the rally and the first pictures
  
• Why is?
  
• Tracking and movement prediction
  
• What dangers?
  
• What can you do?
  
• Links
  
• Updates
  

Report from the rally and the first pictures

3.5 million Berliners seemed to have something else to do but to defend their basic rights, because only 100 had come. That at least surpasses our credentials, where we had specified 50 participants. In addition there are also the 500 passenger, in the time of 15 to 17: 30h who have entered or left the station Südkreuz.

... to be continued - soon, e.g. if the speeches are available as text.

Talked by representatives of Bündnis 90/ Die Grünen, Die Linke (Niklas Schrade), Der PARTEI and Die Piraten (Simon), as well as we as organizer.

Here is a collection of videos from the hot day:

• Demonstration against face recognition technology at Südkreuz station (1.8.17)
  There were many videos recorded, here first the speeches, then the interviews.
  We thank Stream & Beam for Global Change for the video recordings.
  Aktion "Bürgerfahndung Südkreuz" (60 min, 1,3GB)
  Uniwut Freies Fernsehen in Offener Kanal Berlin - AlexTV in the Offenen Kanal Berlin - AlexTV reports in a 1-hour about the action at Berliner Bahnhof Südkreuz. Our video at Youtube https://youtu.be/OKxuLgSxIN4
  Another very nice video from the campaign at  Südkreuz (6 Min.) by the filmmaker Gerd Conradt.
• Interview with Rainer Hamerschmidt from Aktion Freiheit statt Angst
• Beate Baum opposes any form of involuntary survey
• Behavior detection data match prediction - our behavior is registered with Databases balanced and "the future predetermined"
• ...

Here are the first pictures of our campaign, others will follow. Also a video of the speeches of activists and politicians is currently being currently ut together.

... and a few more pictures

Why is?

Expansion of video surveillance
In 2016, the number of video surveillance stations increased to 900. The number of cameras in the stations increased last year from 5,000 to 6,000 (+ 20%). This means that more than 80% of passenger flows are recorded at the railway.

Intelligent video surveillance
Deutsche Bahn, the Federal Criminal Police Office and the Federal Police want to test facial tracking and tracking software at Südkreuz station. At the level of the European Union, the Federal Ministry of the Interior is also working to equip the large EU border police databases with biometric facial recognition capabilities. This will affect these databases:

• Fingerprint system EURODAC
• Visa database VIS
• Schengen Information System.

In the future, facial images from German railway stations or airports can be compared with the European information systems, because the so-called "intelligent video surveillance" analyzes and identifies persons by means of photos in databases, e.g. with all biometric photos of our IDs and passports.
After categorizing video surveillance, this is a level 3

There is the following categorization:

1. general observation monitoring,
2. targeted personal monitoring
3. people detection

The project at station Südkreuz will therefore build and test INDECT-like video surveillance. Indect  was an EU research project designed to preventively identify "criminally relevant threats". INDECT combines data from camera observations with data from the Internet (social networks, search engines, forums, etc.) and state databases. As a result, potential offenders (that is, you, dear reader) should be recognized before they do anything. INDECT should assess whether we are normal or abnormal. INDECT monitors at all levels, both in public space and on the Internet, with the result of unrestricted insight into our privacy.

The use of software-based computer-aided analysis of the data for facial recognition and tracking of persons, a population scan without cause, hurts the §27 of the BpolG (Federal Police) by a face comparison with identification databases.

Tracking and movement prediction

At the forefront of the project are tests for a comparison with police databases and the selection of suspicious behaviors and certain external appearance characteristics. In the beginning, first it has to be proven that the face recognition of the project of 2006 in Mainz main station has enhanced.

Therefore, the project in the station Südkreuz will start with around 80 video cameras. In test mode, a comparison with a database of facial images of volunteers is used.

The project management does not know anything about the planned later effective operation ...

From the answer of the State Secretary Dr. Emily Haber, on a request of the Deputy Andrej Hunko from February 27, 2017 we read:

The scope and type of databases for testing has not yet been finalized. Decisions about a possible later active operation should be made after the test. The test of further functionalities of intelligent video technology is carried out in cooperation with Deutsche Bahn AG. The exact scope has not yet been determined.

What dangers?

Allegedly it is, as is customary in the meantime, to terrorism, in practice, the prosecution of all offenses to regulatory offenses, including black traffic, sprayers, homeless people, beggars, ... be possible.

• The data collection is done secretly.
• It monitors not only those who pose a risk.
• EThere is no purpose limitation of the collected data.
• The result will be a large number of false positives, innocent people are targeted by the authorities. This then leads to a reversal of the presumption of innocence, because the  "accused" must refute the accusation.
• The comparison with biometric ePerso photos is now contrary to the assurances with the introduction of this biometric technique in 2003.

What can you do?

You can conspicuously makeup or disguise, because the software gets recognition problems when wearing hats or beards.

But we do not want to disguise ourselves and hide and we can not just change our way to work so as not to get caught up in the Südkreuz station. So we have to make our protest public!

Write your concerns to the Data Protection Commissioners, your MEPs and the relevant politicians.

Currently running similar projects are:

• CAMINSENS - networked camera systems for the in situ detection of person-induced dangerous situations Network of self-organizing sensors (4 cameras build a 3-D image of the action from 4 perspectives)
• ASEV - Automatic situation assessment for event-driven video surveillance
• APFeL - analysis of temporally backward and forward directed video streams
• MuViT - socio-psychological, sociological, ethical and jurisprudential analyzes in pattern recognition and video tracking; Unsuccessful attempts have so far been made to identify an "emerging situation with threat potential" as planned in the project.
• MisPel - Until 2014, the Federal Police Headquarters and the Hamburg police conducted research on multi-biomass-based forensic people search in photographic and video mass data. Methods of image content analysis to find people in data from public video surveillance were tested. The process is now used for comparison of photographs in police databases.
• ADIS - is the project automated detection of situations requiring intervention by classifying visual patterns. It was specially developed for use at railway stations.
• INDECT - Intelligent information system supporting observation, searching and detection for security of citizens in urban environment - The aim of "Predictive Analytics" and "Relationship mining" is to analyze risks and foresee crimes. The participants were 17 institutions from 9 countries: police, universities and private companies.
• ...

The flyers for the action on 1.8.2017 at the station Südkreuz can be downloaded here. Distribute them to all your friends!


Of course, before printing the bar code mask, it is important to make an individual number in the image. We do not want to go down in the crowd. ;-))

Update 27.07.2017: We have heard from "rumors" that our rally fails. No! It's not like this! We look forward to the next Tue 1.8. and will be at the station Südkreuz from 15-18h.
We look forward to the event and as many visitors as possible. So come over!

Links and more at:

https://netzpolitik.org/2018/biometrische-ueberwachung-am-suedkreuz-zwischenbericht-bleibt-geheim/
http://www.aktion-freiheitstattangst.org/en/articles/6037-20170518-nationale-datenbank-fuer-biometrische-fotos.htm
http://www.aktion-freiheitstattangst.org/en/articles/1917-indect.htm
https://netzpolitik.org/2017/ueberwachungslabor-berlin-suedkreuz-tracking-und-gesichtserkennung-geplant/
https://netzpolitik.org/2017/projekt-sicherheitsbahnhof-intelligente-videoueberwachung-am-berliner-suedkreuz-startet-im-herbst/
http://www.andrej-hunko.de/presse/3493-einsatz-von-bevoelkerungsscannern-an-bahnhoefen-ist-nicht-vom-bundespolizeigesetz-erlaubt
https://www.aktion-freiheitstattangst.org/de/articles/5924-20170223-intelligente-videoueberwachung-am-bahnhof-suedkreuz.htm
https://www.aktion-freiheitstattangst.org/cgi-bin/searchartl.pl?suche=Video&sel=ueber
https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Deutsche-Bahn-will-intelligente-Videoueberwachung-testen-3631191.html
https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/BKA-2D-Foto-Fahndung-ist-nicht-einsatzfaehig-150068.html
https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Deutsche-Bahn-will-intelligente-Videoueberwachung-testen-3631191.html
https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Anti-Terror-Massnahmen-De-Maiziere-will-Gesichtserkennung-im-Bahnhof-3301256.html
https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Streit-ueber-de-Maizieres-Plaene-fuer-mehr-Videoueberwachung-3361291.html
https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Mobile-Ueberwachung-BKA-testet-automatisierte-biometrische-Gesichtserkennung-3660894.html
https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Gesichtserkennung-per-Video-Bundespolizei-sucht-Berliner-Freiwillige-3746657.html
https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Berliner-Test-fuer-Videoueberwachung-mit-Gesichtserkennung-soll-bald-starten-3684006.html
https://cvdazzle.com/
https://digitalcourage.de/blog/2017/selfiestattanalyse-masken-gegen-ueberwachung
https://digitalcourage.de/themen/videoueberwachung/wissenschaftliche-materialsammlung-wirkt-videoueberwachung

Updates

04/02/2018

Since the start of the project at Südkreuz, many people have been trying to shed light on this topic - so far with only moderate success because the requests are mostly not answered.
It is revealing, with which "arguments" the Federal Police responded to a request for the Freedom of Information Act on the evaluation of facial recognition at Südkreuz and continues to deny the release of data.
"(...) by submitting the requested data conclusions on standards and system of video surveillance and recording in the field of federal railways (including to daytime / light-dependent results of the evaluation, the position of the video cameras and the movement behavior of subjects In the event of public disclosure of the relevant information, there would thus be the risk that offenders might base their conduct on the offense in the area of ??the railways of the Federal Railways according to these findings to escape such a discovery. (...)"
The detailed correspondence at https://fragdenstaat.de/anfrage/statistische-auswertung-der-gesichtserkennung-am-bf-suedkreuz/#nachricht-87178

Update 15.10.2018: Biometrische Videoüberwachung: Der Südkreuz-Versuch war kein Erfolg
Das stellt der CCC nach Studium des Abschlussberichts fest. https://www.ccc.de/en/updates/2018/debakel-am-suedkreuz
and read more Südkreuz Abschlussbericht muss zwischen den Zeilen gelesen werden

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