Surveillance

Privacy-Minded Fashion Aims To Baffle Facial Recognition

Wearable bright patterns, infrared lights, and reflective coatings challenge the surveillance state.

J.D. Tuccille | 7.20.2026 7:00 AM

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(Illustration: Midjourney)

With shoplifting a serious concern, and given the declining cost of security equipment, it's no surprise that grocery stores in California are rolling out facial recognition technology to identify known thieves when they step through the door. Software-backed cameras that match people's faces to their names are increasingly ubiquitous at airports, stores, and on the street, spelling the potential end to anonymity in public places. The end, that is, unless people take advantage of gear and tactics designed to confuse facial recognition tech.

You are reading The Rattler from J.D. Tuccille and Reason. Get more of J.D.'s commentary on government overreach and threats to everyday liberty.

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Fashion Responds to the Surveillance State

"As facial recognition technology is rolled out across Britain's public spaces, a new generation of designers say privacy could be the next big fashion trend," Amelia Hill reported last week for The Guardian. "Companies have started incorporating 'adversarial patterns' in their garments—carefully designed arrangements of shapes, colours and repeated motifs said to exploit weaknesses in some computer vision systems."

If surveillance-conscious clothing becomes a thing, it makes sense that it would be especially popular in the U.K., which has one of the more heavily monitored populations in........

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