Watchful Mannequin Spooks Residents Near Ballston

Someone placed a mannequin alongside a busy road near Ballston this morning.

The female mannequin was wearing a knit hat, a t-shirt and a sign about being a “DoD based experiment,” a tipster told ARLnow. It was placed at the corner of N. Wakefield Street and N. Carlin Springs Road.

The sign on it referenced Secure Planet, a Ballston-based biometrics and facial recognition technology company. A phone number printed on the sign rings through to a company executive, though it was not answered when an ARLnow.com reporter called Friday afternoon.

At some point, someone placed another typed sign on the mannequin, criticizing the company for alleged privacy violations.

The mannequin, signs and all, appears to have been moved just before the end of the morning rush hour.

“Very bizarre,” the tipster concluded.

Update at 6:30 p.m. — The person who put the second sign on the mannequin discussed it on Twitter yesterday.

When the surveillance state enablers start using your street for selling their product. Mannequin on a tripod, left in the public right of way. "DoD Based Experiment – Please Do Not Disturb" So I called the number on the front. 1/ pic.twitter.com/DzSO3z7pgi

— Mark Blacknell (@Blacknell) April 19, 2018

[an address almost half a mile away], watching it."He says they're about to come pick it up, thanks for leaving it alone.

I gotta say, I'm a little conflicted about leaving it alone. This is a company that sells police/gov'ts the ability to do non-consensual face ID, at range 4/

— Mark Blacknell (@Blacknell) April 19, 2018

Reads:

"This was placed here by people who treat your identity and privacy as if it were

FREE

to them to use and profit from.

It's a commercial demonstration of a product that will let law enforcement/governments/anyone who pays them identify people" 6/7

— Mark Blacknell (@Blacknell) April 20, 2018