Face Search Engine Raises Privacy Concerns

holy_calamity writes "Startup Polar Rose is in the news today after announcing it will soon launch a service that uses facial recognition software, along with collaborative input, to identify and find people in photos online. But such technology has serious implications for privacy, according to two UK civil liberties groups. Will people be so keen to put their lives on Flickr once anyone from ID thieves to governments can find out their name, and who they associate with?"

Comments

Witness Protection

[jeffkjo1]

I'm curious how things like this will work with Witness Protection.

Setting aside the fact that, at least right now, sunglasses fool these systems... if someone, lets say, a member of the Talini Crime family wants to find a rat. By giving a picture of him to this company, they could then search for pictures on the internet he appears in.

Considering how many pictures people take with random people in the background, it seems inevitable that said rat would turn up.

Re:Lesson #1 -- Don't Expect Privacy Online

[oldwindways]

My understanding was that this software makes such precautions irrelevant as it could be used to cross reference images and determine that BlogUser99, PhotoDad12, etc are in fact the same person.

Not a big deal, unless you happen to work for a conservative company and maintain an anti-government blog or some such thing.

Re:Lesson #1 -- Don't Expect Privacy Online

[frdmfghtr]

Especially with the advent of social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, and with user-supplied content, a-la YouTube. It's tough to keep a firm grasp on your privacy these days if you're at all part of any aspect of modern culture.

Agreed. I submitted a story to /. on 11 December (still pending??) about an article in TIME magazine.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15994151/site/newsweek /

From that story, a good example:

But two Bank of America employees at a private function celebrating the company's merger with MBNA couldn't have anticipated what happened to them. Their over-the-top rendition of U2's "One" (with custom lyrics like "Integration has never had us feeling so good") wound up being mocked by thousands of Internet critics. (Adding injury to insult, lawyers for U2's record label threatened a lawsuit for copyright infringement.)

Cheap video technology (esp. video-capable cellphones) and social sites make it all possible.

Simply being in public can get you on these social sites, whether you actually use them (or have even HEARD of them) or not. In the end, the only way to ensure your privacy is to not become a part of society. If you venture into public, you too could end up on some social web site.

And remember--this is the PUBLIC engaging in a type of surveillance on the PUBLIC. For the tinfoil hats out there, it's not just the government's watchful eye you have to be careful around; it's that video-capable cellphone in the hands of the seemingly innocent rider sitting across from you on the train, too.