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Imagine walking into a shop and being told, “Sorry, you can’t come in here. The facial recognition system says you shoplifted from another store at the other end of the country last year so you’re barred.”The store in question wasn’t even part of the chain you’ve entered, it was part of another chain that uses the Facewatch system. You’ve never shoplifted anything in your life. Maybe it’s a mixup, maybe the system got it wrong, but you’re barred from a number of retail chains because they’re storing faces without your knowledge or consent.This kind of thing is actually happening to people, such as a woman at QD Stores in London. Did you consent to being monitored by Facewatch? Because I know I certainly didn’t.One of the defences of the Facewatch system is that it can stop people who steal diapers, groceries, pet supplies and other low-cost goods. Yes, capitalism would rather build hi-tech systems that monitor our every movement than make things like food and nappies affordable.People of colour take note…wrongful facial recognition is 100 times more likely to misidentify a black person than a white person. To clarify, this has already happened in the USA. There are many examples, but one in particular was such as a black man in Minneapolis. The guy was picked up after wrongful facial recognition, arrested for carjacking and spent five days in jail despite the fact he could easily prove his innocence.!Here is another example of the technology in action….Imagine you’re a personal injury lawyer representing a client who is involved in a legal dispute with Madison Square Garden. You take your nine-year-old daughter and her girl scout group to a “Christmas Spectacular” at Radio Music City Hall which is owned by MSG Entertainment.The children have been excited for ages, but you get rejected at the door by security staff and your evening is ruined, thanks to, you’ve guessed it…facial recognition cameras.Security staff even know your name and the law firm you represent because they’ve been keeping tabs on you without your consent! They explain that bosses of the venue banned you from sporting and entertainment events simply for doing your job as a lawyer. Even worse, the ban applies to all employees at your law firm, including the ones who aren’t involved in the case! People are being punished simply because business owners don’t like who they work for now.Without strict regulations, it’s easy to see how people can be barred from sections of society, perhaps every retailer in the country, for unfair reasons. With mass surveillance, everyone has a profile containing data such as their movements, employer, credit data, political views and online activity. Perhaps one retailer doesn’t want people who support a particular cause or perhaps another retailer bars anyone who’s ever criticised them on social media. This technology can even stop people getting jobs or cost them an existing job.UK law states personal data can only be gathered with your consent, and only be used without your consent if there is a valid reason, however, there are problems with this.First, what constitutes “consent” and “valid reason” is open to debate. Did we really consent to credit files or was that system forced upon us? You can’t even rent a property or get a mortgage without a credit check these days.Second, rules are always at risk of being bent and broken, it seems they already have been. Also, rules can be watered down or scrapped, especially when money is involved. For example, the UK’s Tory government decided to sell NHS data to US corporations without the peoples consent.People will pay a huge price for data and when something is valuable, capitalists will find a way to gather and sell it.Our faces can be scanned everywhere we go and although many have argued this violates privacy laws, companies and the police have been doing it anyway. Even worse, a man in Romford UK was fined £90 for hiding his face from facial recognition cameras and swearing when police demanded his ID.We are now approaching the level of technology where cameras and AI can identify and track every face. WHEN digital currency takes affect, it can log your smartphone location data and track your purchases.The government & private companies will always know where you are, who you are hanging out with, what kind of hobbies you are taking part in, etc. Facebook and Google already have a good idea of this. It’s all getting so Minority Report.You might think things won’t go that far, but again, I don’t remember consenting to having a credit file…the system was imposed on me and didn’t exist before 1989. I never consented to Google and Facebook tracking my internet activity. I never consented to government mass surveillance under the guise of tackling terrorism. I never consented to Facewatch.If we know one thing for sure it’s that governments and capitalists will abuse any technology to track and control us if they can get away with it.What about mind reading headphones (no, not a joke). The technology to read your brainwaves already exists and can easily go into headphones, or presumably a smartphone.For example, It can pick up emotional states, whether you’re happy or sad or angry, decode faces that you’re seeing in your mind. It can pick up simple shapes, numbers, your PIN number to your bank account…etc etc.The WEF are already talking about sending brain data to your doctor, and you know it’s a matter of time until they’re selling it to third parties and obviously, handing it over to the government. Wait, you don’t consent to that? Tough shit, it’s in your employment contract. Your mind is our property now. You don’t like that, you don’t eat.They can’t fully read complex thoughts yet, but they’re pretty damn close, and AI has accelerated progress in this field dramatically.So we are now entering a future where not only are our movements tracked, not only is our face captured, not only are people you associate with monitored, but even your thoughts are recorded. This is no longer the realm of science-fiction. Technology is not likely to be a limiting factor. The limiting factors will be the morality of the people who hold power (which is possibly non-existent) and our ability to push back, which will only come with raised awareness.Thankfully, some people are fighting back but not near enough. There are a few court cases around the world underway. In one case in the UK, it was found that police acted unlawfully by taking the facial biometric data of 500,000 people without their consent.This is good, but there is no law forbidding the use of facial recognition cameras. Plus, governments have a habit of changing laws to assault our civil liberties. Think the spy cops bill, anti-protest bill, etc. Powerful people love power and technology is giving them an awful lot of it. They’re constantly trying to herd us like sheep so we’d better make damn sure we are unherdable.