I wrote a few weeks ago about some new devices the police are acquiring to enable facial recognition. I said, we can expect such devices to find widespread use- way beyond their original intent. (You do know the GPS on your phone not only tells you where you are, but everyone else, as well?)
Well, SceneTap, has arrived. It works on the Android and iPhone platforms. While not telling you who is present, you can be informed of the male/female ratio, the number of persons, and the average age of folks at bars (who have installed facial recognition cameras to hook up with this app.) Right now, about 250 bars in Chicago have installed such equipment; it’s about to go national.
Or, SocialCamera, for Android phones, which tags photos, posts them to the web (by comparing them to your Facebook friends). Given what we know about camera phones, it also will let others know where you took the picture and when!
At home, we will have Viewdle (who developed SocialCamera) which will identify which couch potato is watching TV in your house. And, then provide customized programming for that viewer. (Kind of the way Google now provides search- it knows who you are, what you like, and censors the news to match your bias and proclivity.) It also can block certain programming when it recognizes your children in front of the tv.
On a slightly different- but more disturbing note, Dr. Alessandro Acquisti, a CMU and Heinz College professor has also been complaining about the privacy of our social security numbers. Most of you don’t know they are not random. (As a tax professional, I have owned a program for almost 2 decades that identifies the likelihood of someone’s social security number being valid. It’s a function of the date of one’s birth and hometown.)
Dr. Acquisti presented some of his results to a recent BlackHat conference. He used a cheap webcam to photograph 93 students, who were also asked to take a quick online survey. About half could then be linked automatically to their Facebook profile. But, that’s not all. If they had their date of birth and city listed on their Facebook account, they were able to determine the first five digits of their social security number- unless they were foreign students (where the system operates differently.) [Maybe you want to change your Facebook listing data?]
Oh, and PittPatt, the off-the-shelf facial recognition software developed at Carnegie Mellon about 7 years ago? It’s now part of Google. (This software was able to match random photos taken with cheap cameras to folk’s Facebook profile- and then to various dating sites.)
One of the reasons for the explosion of these apps is that the ability of computer systems to recognize stationary images has now progressed to beyond 99.7% accuracy (from 20% some 20 years ago). (This was reported in the Report on the Evaluation of 2D Still-Image Face Recognition Algorithms, NIST Interagency Report 7709). Caveat emptor…
Great post, Roy. Some of that stuff is crazy. The social security number, on the other hand, is something I’ve known about for a LONG time. My parents never got mine, so it’s actually from a state we lived in when I was a preteen so it has nothing to do with my hometown. 🙂
These days, unfortunately, you get tagged before you even leave the hospital. 😛
Amethyst:
Some of us get tagged so often, we think the game kids play is part of life!
Absolutely right about the SSN system, too!
Thanks for dropping in.
Roy
I have to say that this post REALLY creeps me out. While the initial intent of these technologies might not be “evil” the ability to abuse them is very clear. I’ve got to go change my FB profile….
Tor:
I have been watching these forever. Ever since they began using cameras on the streets of Boston some 40 years ago (even if those were really useless), I knew that our privacy was being violated.
It’s also why I never post pictures from my phone- to keep the metadata with me and not with you (or any of you…) Once I edit the picture, then it’s safe.
Roy
I would comment more, but I need to go lock the doors and change my fb profile.
One second, Bonnie. I think I can hack in… 🙂
Roy
I keep most of my personal Facebook profile private because of things like this — while still realizing that regardless of privacy settings, if I don’t want it out there in public, I’d better never post it online.
That’s the challenge with tech, isn’t it? Such awesome advances but the ability to use them the wrong way is just too much a temptation for those with the power to do so.
You have said it right, Michelle.
As an engineer, I was always taught that technology was amoral- its users rendered the technology moral or immoral. To a point, I agree.
The development of a ray gun that can kill anything within 1000 feet cannot be judged to be amoral. The development of nuclear fission and fusion could be so construed; their bastardization into huclear weapons is less clear.
It’s our job to assure our own civil liberties. It is clear that government and industry have no such compulsion.
Roy
I admit I didn’t know that about the social security numbers.
While I’m of a generation that valued privacy, our children are growing up in a culture that doesn’t. They are very vulnerable. We are always educating our daughter about security and online privacy. Imagine what the technology can do to help criminals take advantage of and/or harm our kids.
Thanks for opening my eyes even further to this issue, Roy!
Sherrie
Sherrie:
My kids were the same way. And, as they have gotten older, they have become shocked at the ability to discern information they would never have shared with a stranger so available.
So much so that I don’t list the name of my grandchild…
Roy
Is this really helpful or do I hear more misuse than use? I mean, I totally agree if it is for security reasons and for helping reducing crime and creating that fear among people indulging in violence but when do we draw a line between privacy and “security reasons”. Does any of us actually like being “watched” always? Is everything actually secure… what if someone is “watching” me right now… yikes! 😉
Hajra:
Going one step further- watch to see what England decides to do after their riots. It’s rumored they plan to curtail certain phone activities. What will they say to Iran and China, then?
Or, BART (the San Francisco “subway” authority) turned off cell phones to preclude a demonstration against them…
But, these are “free” societies, right?
Roy
I’ve never owned a cell phone and hardly ever have my photo taken.
When I was on FB, I was always sure to keep the profile as vague as possible, volunteering only the absolute minimum info necessary. Different browsers would have me logged in from different locations. These locations varied by time of day. One can use proxies to further throw off FB but I found it unnecessary.
This article gave me another reason to be glad I don’t watch more TV than I do.
But there is that pesky SSN to worry about. Even without it or any of the above, though, I get the feeling Big Brother could keep watch over me if he so desired…and he does.
Another awesome piece. I shared everywhere I still have an account.
Thanks for dropping in and leaving your comments.
They certainly augment the thrust of the post, JJV.
Roy