CHICAGO, IL – As more of our privacy is stripped away by government surveillance, more options to protect ourselves are becoming available on the market. This product from artist Leo Selvaggio takes protection out of the tech realm and into the streets.

Selvaggio started URME surveillance while living in Chicago, the most surveilled city in the country. Military grade facial recognition programs were being used by police on over 25,000 security cameras, which were all networked into a single hub called Virtual Shield. You can be anywhere in Chicago, and a camera can not only track you, it can pull up your information seamlessly.

Subtle ways to shield your face while out in public are rather limited. Ski masks are obvious, and Guy Fawkes masks usually draw attention. To protect people from this Orwellian surveillance, he decided to let the cameras tag a face, but not their own. Selvaggio uses his own face as a template to create lifelike masks that have been tested for facial recognition. The masks range in price and quality, but each product identifies the wearer of the mask as Selvaggio on Facebook.

So dedicated is Selvaggio to this cause, he is distributing these products at cost. All the proceeds will be poured into the continued manufacture of these devices to prevent unwarranted spying. Do you think products like this are likely to catch on?Feel free to weigh in on the comments below.









URME SURVEILLANCE: Indiegogo Campaign from Leo Selvaggio on Vimeo.





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