[LINK] : ‘Alarm bells ringing’: You can soon pay for a coffee with your face. Should you?

[David]

On Friday, 21 August 2026 03:25:13 AEST Craig Sanders wrote:
>> [ADL:] I'm inclined to think anyone silly enough to subscribe to such a "service" probably needs to learn a lesson the hard way and pass it on!   It reminds me of the old Goon Show line "Open your wallet and repeat after me: 'Help Yourself".
> 
> The problem, as usual, is that the cameras won't just be taking photos of those "silly enough to subscribe".   They'll be taking photos of everyone walking up to the checkout counter. or into the shop. or past a window of the shop.
> "Opt out" is not an option.  And even if it was, just as with the stupid idea of opting out of spam, opting out does not work and does not scale.

Yes...  My rather frivolous comment was intended to be more a gesture of despair at the gullibility of some people and the apparent lack of any ethical standards in others (choose your own individuals).

Pursuing that point, I suggest a lack of respect for ethical standards is the root problem.  And of course "ethical" behaviour isn't usually enforced in Law, which is why those exploiting the gullible get away with it.  But eventually they create so much resentment and so many victims that Government is forced to enact regulation.  And then the usual suspects cry crocodile tears about yet more bureaucracy / regulation / paperwork / loss of their democratic "rights" / job losses /....

They have themselves to blame.  So where is this mess heading?

I suppose nany of us have been around since data communications was in its infancy, and anyone born before the middle-50's would easily recall a time when Australia didn't even have TV, let alone AI data centres.  The lesson there is that the individuals & corporations making such vast profits have no concept of, or have forgotten, how easily we could do without it all.

They also have no idea how easily it could all be destroyed in wartime, it's almost just a training exercise.  My guess is on fragmentation of the net, with corresponding gains in individual & national agency..

_DavidL_