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[mouse]

I saw this on the TV tonight but it isn't being widely publicised.  The local news outlets - which normally have a lot of Australian news - haven't even admitted that it exists and this story is one of only two that I found world-wide.

My "mouth dropped open" when an Australian politician said "Australia has now joined the new world order" and some idiot reporter (they're really not journalists any more) kept going on about "the price people have to pay for safety and security".  I stopped to watch the news item, it was horrifying like something out of a horror/science fiction novel.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/oct/05/turnbull-denies-new-facial-recognition-measures-amount-to-mass-surveillance

Peppered with questions about the privacy implications of the new automated face-matching regime after he flagged on Wednesday it would work in concert with CCTV footage, Turnbull said law enforcement agencies already routinely shared database information to confirm the identity of potential offenders.
But he said the current procedures were laborious, “clunky” and unfit for 21st century law enforcement. “What this is doing is simply making [face matching] available in as near as possible real time,” Turnbull said.
He confirmed that private companies could be given access to the information by approval from government, and under supervision.
The intergovernmental agreement signed off by leaders says “authorised private sector organisations” will be allowed to access the document verification and face verification services “for matching against identity information held by the commonwealth, states and territories, with the consent of the individual concerned”.

snip

Actually here's a better one that just came up:

http://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/design/lets-face-it-well-be-no-safer-with-a-national-facial-recognition-database/news-story/11bda0d5a02f61b495c673f6902c56e6

A COMMITMENT to share the biometric data of most Australians — including your driving licence photo — agreed at Thursday’s Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting will result in a further erosion of our privacy.
That sharing is not necessary. It will be costly. But will it save us from terrorism? Not all, although it will give people a false sense of comfort.

snip

[MamaLiberty]

it will give people a false sense of comfort.

This, though the people may be past that. I don't know.