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“The main problem is the large volume of people who suddenly cover their faces,” said Francis Dodsworth, a senior professor of criminology at Kingston University, near London. “This situation could create opportunities for people who want to cover their faces for the wrong reasons. Now they will be able to do so without raising suspicion.”
An incident occurred in Spain, where the Interior Ministry announced last month that it had arrested an ISIS terrorist who had been hiding in the city of Almeria since fleeing Syria. The institution said that it had adapted its behavior due to the pandemic, which was just beginning, and that “it always wore a mask to avoid detection.”
Experts said wearing masks en masse could also complicate crime investigation, as facial recognition is becoming an increasingly important part of criminal prosecution. While humans are very good at recognizing familiar faces, and facial recognition algorithms have improved in identifying patterns, masks create new headaches.
“Many witnesses are already causing trouble,” said Dodsworth. “When a group of people witness the same crime, one person will see someone with a mustache and a hat, while another will see someone with a beard and sunglasses.”
Surveillance camera video is sometimes the only evidence in an investigation, said Eilidh Noyes, a professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Huddersfield in northern England. “At the moment we don’t know exactly how facial masks will affect the accuracy of the human face identification or the algorithm,” he said.
A Chinese company has already claimed that it has developed software that can identify people, even if they wear masks. However, experts believe it is still a long way to go. Covering faces creates other law enforcement problems, especially when it comes to establishing suspicious behavior.
Last year, laws were passed in Hong Kong and France that made it illegal to cover your face during a protest. Now, the police will have to look differently at people’s motivations to cover their faces, Dodsworth said. Of all the measures to prevent Covid, massive face coverage is one of the most dramatic. Masks are not mandatory in most western countries, amid human rights fears and privacy issues.
“People are asked to be alone and it is suggested that they wear masks. Normally, if you go alone and see someone with a mask, you could avoid it. But now it is less clear when and if they should be afraid,” Dodsworth said. The fact that criminals can exploit wearing a mask could put pressure on law-abiding citizens.
Whether someone wants to hurt you or not, the fact that their faces cannot be seen hides the crucial emotional keys that people rely on to survive. “When you see a face, you do two things at once. You try to recognize it and you try to read its emotions,” Noyes said. “Recognizing emotion is important from an evolutionary perspective because it helps us measure threats and can also facilitate positive social interactions. This is true for both people we know and people we don’t have. We never knew each other.”
Wearing a mask will inevitably affect the way people interact and could lead to increased tensions between members of society, with implications for personal safety. “For survival reasons, you should know what someone’s intentions are when you meet them. By not being able to do it easily, you will be more cautious and defensive, which in some cases can unfortunately lead to violent clashes.” said Ian H. Robertson, professor of psychology at Trinity College Dublin. Clearly, any move towards a faceless society will be a great challenge for Western nations. As Dodsworth put it, “At first we can become extremely suspicious of each other.” “It is not culturally familiar to us and we could adapt by avoiding each other.” Kate Gray of the University of Reading, who specializes in emotion processing, said people will likely adapt quickly. “I think we will get used to taking social and emotional cues from voice or body language pretty quickly,” he said.
Source: MEDIAFAX, CNN
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