Facial recognition

[Nelphine]

Again, the main reason is: you are dealing with tech and biologicals you know nothing about. You DON'T want to be the Alien movie. You DON'T want a pandemic on your ship. And you DON'T want some nanite taking over your crews brains.

Dealing with the unknown, on an interstellar level, means total surveillance is the minimun for safe operation. Get a crew (and players) that you trust for that. I'm not playing traveller to have secrets from my companions. I'm not in it to 'gotcha' the people that im there to have fun with. But the universe, that the ref can and absolutely should, have unknown threats against us? Yes, i want to do the bare minimum to protect against them.

 

[Vormaerin]

That may be. But I do not and will not like it, do not and will not consume that type of SciFi. And so I simply vote with my feet and my wallet. And just like with Drugs, Apple Products and Prostitutes - I just say NO

As I stated in the post you quoted, I can see not playing in a game with content you don't like. That makes sense. If you don't want surveillance, drugs, or prostitutes featuring in a game you are in, that's fine. I don't play in games where I'm expected to be a vampire or other parasitic monster and I don't play with mind control or doppelgangers, either.

But I have friends who enjoy those elements in their games. We just don't use them in the games we play together. It seems extreme to refuse to associate with someone entirely because you don't like a game they are playing. But, you don't need to care about my opinion either. So you do you.

 

[Vormaerin]

As far as panopticon goes in my games, I don't make a particularly big deal about it. While Traveller produces a lot of planets with autocratic governments and high law levels, I generally restrict real panopticon to specific planets where the PCs know what they would be getting into.

I don't generally find it to be a useful gameplay element because it is difficult to make it fun. Most players don't have the interests or knowledge to play a Stainless Steel Rat type character and Traveller does not generally create characters with the skills to fill that role. Certainly, that is not where my players are. So I don't feature it outside of specific situations.

 

[Sigtrygg]

I dread to think what the current law level of the UK is...

 

[mb345345]

When I originally posted I was kind of thinking of the Imperium tracking who went where, rather than who got on your starship, but hey, that counts too. So if someone flies from port A to port B, the Imperium will know about it. It already happens IRL

Why Passengers' Fingerprints Are Taken Upon Arrival At US Airports

Arrival fingerprinting allows border officials to minimize fraudulent entries.

simpleflying.com

What are biometric passports? | Post Office®

Find out everything you need to know about biometric passports, what they look like, and how to use an ePassport gate in this Post Office guide.

www.postoffice.co.uk

"A machine at the gate will scan your passport and match the data on it with your face using facial recognition technology, making the process quick and easy."

Pretty sure the Imperium would be using biometrics to track where you go. There are plenty of technological ways to defeat these surveillance measures for sure (loved the mask rip vid!) and I guess there will be those travellers who have a bag full of IDs and disguises, no problem with that, and frontier starports? yeh, not even any customs I expect.

As far as surveillance on a starship is concerned, I guess that's down to whose ship it is. I'd hope the crew trust each other, it's hijackers travelling as passengers I'd be more worried about tbh, but ymmv

 

[mb345345]

I dread to think what the current law level of the UK is...

I'll just post these links.

Ministry of Truth — Big Brother Watch

Internet and social media companies are the public squares of the modern day. But our online public squares are at risk.

bigbrotherwatch.org.uk

UK: ‘Spy clause’ in Online Safety Bill must be addressed before it becomes law

Ahead of the UK Online Safety Bill entering its final stages in the House of Lords on 6 September, which could see a so-called ‘spy clause’ signed into law this year, Rasha Abdul Rahim, Director of Amnesty Tech, said: “Clause 122, known as the ‘spy clause’, could see the private sector being...

www.amnesty.org

Met uses new anti-protest powers to arrest climate protesters for first time

Force makes first use of section 7 of Public Order Act to curtail slow march protest outside parliament

www.theguardian.com

 

[Vormaerin]

As far as surveillance on a starship is concerned, I guess that's down to whose ship it is. I'd hope the crew trust each other, it's hijackers travelling as passengers I'd be more worried about tbh, but ymmv

Yeah, the issue isn't that you need to watch your crew (hopefully), it is whether the crew will tolerate the level of surveillance you want on the potential hijackers.

 

[Nelphine]

Thats awful, and im sorry you have to deal with that. Were you in my group, id be happy to remove certain 'unknown tech/biologicals' from the game to avoid any need to include hint of surveillance.

And were i ever needing to design surveillance, the trust im talking about includes making it acceptable to people who have every reason to mistrust it. Rules around its use - that are actually enforced and followed - are absolutely necessary. Which of course historically has not happened. And hopefully we will continue to learn so much about the universe that such surveillance would never need to be necessary - that the idea of unknown tech and biologicals, will remain simply a sci fi trope, and Alien could never actually occur.