Facial recognition software has been in the news for years now. Although it's more prominent in film, books and movies than anywhere else. Where we see an organization of some sort going through database after database trying to find a match to an unknown person caught in video, in a photo, etc. Amazingly some people don't realize how far along the technology has come... or for how long companies have been compiling our images into a said database.
Take this article over at Bigthink. It explores many of the ideas of what is going on, how little the average person knows and how it may affect our rights in the future. But what you are here for is to see how this can affect things in game besides the obvious of somebody finding out who you are. Than answer to that is of course.... style!
For as long as people have been talking about facial recognition software there have been people talking about how to beat it. Most of this is done through make up, hairstyles and anything else that can break up a computers ability to single out the key focus points of a human face.
This could lead to a massive style movement in society aimed at just making it harder for them to be identified. Exact copies of makeup among a group so they all look the same could be popular among gangs. Celebrities who want to walk out without being spotted by a paparazzi computer scanning through public domain camera's located all around a city. The common person who just thinks there is to much Big Brother in their day to day life.
Another attempt to fool the computers has come from light emitting glasses of some sort. Disabling a computers ability to pick up the points on their face due to lens flare or blurring out what they see. Again all based against the focus points a system looks for. Again an entire range of fashion could spawn from this, something you could see hundreds of people on the street wearing.
Now for the more financially well off and desperate there are the choices of plastic surgery and full on facial restructuring. From slight mods here and there to rebuilding your face down to adjusting the bone structure of your face. Expensive, probably painful, lots of recovery time but with a bigger payout for your ability not to be recognized by either a human eye or an electronic one.
Just some ideas to work into your cyberpunk games when it comes to what society 'looks' like in a world monitored by corporate and government computers 24/7. Maybe even add a skill for a character to have for their ability to mask themselves. Entire stores dedicated to selling the makeup and accessories necessary.
For more pictures of people attempting to block facial recognition software check out this link to a google image search on the subject: Blocking Facial Recognition
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