Ghostmaxxing!
Experiments in adversarial disguise to deceive facial recognition
The expansion of facial recognition in public and private spaces represents a pervasive threat to democratic liberties, normalizing institutional control and turning our physical traits into extractable commodities.
This initiative, titled Ghòstati! in Italian, focuses on physical and visual self-defense against mass biometric surveillance. By utilizing adversarial makeup, custom pattern patches, and fashion-tech fabrics, we strategically alter key facial features to make faces unreadable to computer vision systems. The Italian campaign runs active training meetups and anonymous mapping of local surveillance zones to help citizens escape predatory biometric capture.
While we advocate for a unified European ban on mass biometric monitoring, our hands-on makeup testing, workshops, and surveillance mapping are currently confined to Milan and Rome.
Italian Equivalent Resources
Since our physical workshops and mapping are situated in Italy, we invite you to explore and use these Italian-equivalent resources:
- Ghòstati! Web App: An open-source, local-processing tool to live-test the effectiveness of your adversarial makeup via webcam.
- Ghostati GitHub Repository: View, fork, and inspect the codebase of our free anti-surveillance software.
- Blow the Whistle on Biometric Surveillance: Submit anonymous information about local facial recognition systems deployed in public or private spaces.
- SARI Enterprise Report by Privacy Network: An investigative report on Italian automated public surveillance tools.
- Reclaim Your Face Campaign: The European citizens’ initiative advocating for a ban on mass biometric surveillance.