Some shirts hide you from cameras—but will anyone wear them?

Article note: Harassing entities attempting surveilence is always a good sport. Some of the CV-Dazzle designs I'd wear just because they're neat. I also really like the suggestion in the comments to put a QR code containing the EICAR Test String (a dummy that triggers antivirus) on things to fuck with all the entities using off-the-shelf excessive image recognition tools in public, I might have to make some stickers or something...

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson / Getty)

Right now, you're more than likely spending the vast majority of your time at home. Someday, however, we will all be able to leave the house once again and emerge, blinking, into society to work, travel, eat, play, and congregate in all of humanity's many bustling crowds.

The world, when we eventually enter it again, is waiting for us with millions of digital eyes—cameras, everywhere, owned by governments and private entities alike. Pretty much every state out there has some entity collecting license plate data from millions of cars—parked or on the road—every day. Meanwhile all kinds of cameras—from police to airlines, retailers, and your neighbors' doorbells—are watching you every time you step outside, and unscrupulous parties are offering facial recognition services with any footage they get their hands on.

In short, it's not great out there if you're a person who cares about privacy, and it's likely to keep getting worse. In the long run, pressure on state and federal regulators to enact and enforce laws that can limit the collection and use of such data is likely to be the most efficient way to effect change. But in the shorter term, individuals have a conundrum before them: can you go out and exist in the world without being seen?