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Face Recognition App Taking Russia By Storm May Bring End To Public Anonymity (theguardian.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Anonymity in public could soon become a thing of the past. A service called FindFace allows users to photograph people in a crowd and work out their identities with 70% reliability. It works by comparing photographs to profile pictures on Vkontakte, a social network popular in Russia and the former Soviet Union, with more than 200 million accounts. In future, the designers imagine a world where people walking past you on the street could find your social network profile by sneaking a photograph of you, and shops, advertisers and the police could pick your face out of crowds and track you down via social networks. In the short time since the launch, FindFace has amassed 500,000 users and processed nearly 3m searches.The Newsweek wrote about this app last month. The publication reported on an abuse of the app in which porn stars and sex workers were targeted. Some wanted to use FindFace for the purpose of "outing" these sex workers to their families and social media contacts.
And stick it to the man!
You are hosed, forever.
When reading Findface I immediately thought of Friendface.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rNgCnY1lPg
And since your friends and family keep telling you that "you're only being paranoid" and posting group photos anyway, you're screwed anyway.
Your only chance is to always wear a mask everywhere you go, but some countries have laws against that, including Canada.
The publication reported on an abuse of the app in which porn stars and sex workers were targeted. Some wanted to use FindFace for the purpose of "outing" these sex workers to their families and social media contacts.
It would also be helpful and possibly more equitable to out the people who frequent the sex workers. In fact, maybe leave the sex workers alone since for the most part they are just earning an honest living, and out the people using them, who typically are betraying someone they have promised to be faithful to.
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
The DMV now creates a social media account for you. Soon not having a social media account equals being vagrant.
I stuck a pic of Rush Limbaugh up instead. Some trolls are probably trying to chew him out over the "creative" things I said about their mothers.
Table-ized A.I.
With the ability of technology to do these kinds of things, society is going to be changing. But which direction will it go?
Will we become a more repressed society, afraid to engage in activity that other people don't approve of? A society where we share as little as possible with others out of fear?
Or will society become "anything goes," where people accept that everyone has a past that may not be pretty, and people may engage in activities that we may not appreciate? After all, that camera could be pointed towards us - who are we to judge?
Love sees no species.
Public anonymity went away a long time ago...
That being said: When Google Glass did this it was considered enough of a violation that they banned that and such apps from the device. Social acceptability has to come a long ways here (USA) for this to catch on and certainly before it "brings and end" (fuck you click-bait title) to anything.
In future, the designers imagine a world where people walking past you on the street could find your social network profile by sneaking a photograph of you, and shops, advertisers and the police could pick your face out of crowds and track you down via social networks.
As seen in: Watch_Dogs (2012), Eden of the East (2009), Minority Report (2002), and plenty of other science fiction of one form or another.
Hire a Linux system administrator, systems engineer,
If there is to be a panopticon, the only sensible next step is to make sure everybody has access, not just government.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
or other similar things to obfuscate ones face.
Sounds like an already existing (I'm certain) genre is going to become more popular.
With FindFace and the similar services that are sure to follow in its footsteps, almost everybody will be able to identify almost anybody else in a few seconds. This heralds the end of privacy as we know it. Even widespread video cameras and NSA communications monitoring don't do as much damage to privacy as these services will, because the public at large doesn't have access to the video footage and the data that the NSA and other TLA's gather.
I'm afraid privacy will soon be officially a thing of the past. At least I can take comfort in the fact that I have been diligent about not having my picture appear on the Web - identifying me using a FindFace-like service would probably be quite difficult. Until hackers break into the Ministry of Transportation and steal my driver's licence photo, that is... As for all those people who are promiscuous users of Facebook and the like, I'm sure they don't care about this any more than the lemmings a few ranks back from the edge of the cliff care about what's coming up shortly. Good luck to us all in this brave new world.
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
These types of tech will finally start forcing regular people to stop posting fotos of themselves on their own profiles. Some people are already using other non-photo icons for their profile images.
If everyone is screwed then everyone is screwed together and its effect is if you haven't been linked to porn online you are weird.
Imagine with the likes of Facebook and other government agencies have at their disposal.
609.735 CONCEALING IDENTITY.
A person whose identity is concealed by the person in a public place by means of a robe, mask, or other disguise, unless based on religious beliefs, or incidental to amusement, entertainment, protection from weather, or medical treatment, is guilty of a misdemeanor.
https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/?id=609.735
If in a relationship one is a consenting adult (getting involved with the sex provider) and the other is non-consenting adult, you can bet that the partner of non-consenting adult, the "consenting" adult does have a precedent of the non-consenting adult not meeting certain type of marital obligations.
Not meeting certain obligations does have the consequences for all parties.
Or,... Perhaps we should stop being arbitrators in areas that are clearly none of our business. Most of the states concluded that infidelity is not a reason for "at fault" treatment in the courts of law. Basically lawyers decided that it is not a legal issue.
As such, we should not be judging those who would be participants of such debacle.
Or more likely: Middle Eastern style head coverings are about to become universal.
You're assuming that people aren't hypocrites who will look down on other people for doing the same things that they do. Just one look at the number of rabidly homophobic politicians and religious leaders who turned out to be having gay sex on the side should be more than enough to prove that assumption is wildly wrong.
Something shady like visiting a bar, going to a drunken dorm blowout, picking up some (legal) weed or (legal) porn, visiting the "wrong" political rally, and so on. It's one thing if you bump into a colleague in the dodgy rubber fetish section at the videostore, it's quite another if your current and future friends, family, employers, interested law enforcement officers can place you there until the end of time.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
Soon not having a social media account equals being vagrant.
citation needed
What is the Russian government interested in social media sites?
Doesn't Russia (or any government) have a database of driver license photos already?
This is why I never used a Social media site, never uploaded a single photo, Now if I can only get others to stop uploading photos with me in them.
RMS has been vagrant for decades and he's doing alright. Maybe it's time to become free.
It's coming. Employers think you're suspicious (or even a psychopath) if you aren't posting on Facebook every day...
"Yet another reason NOT to be on Facebook".
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
"...May Bring an End to Public Anonymity"
Missed a great chance to use the word "oxymoronic" in the news dept. tag.
The biggest issue is probably longevity. Nothing gets deleted, and what's ok today is hounded tomorrow.
Some people, like me, have no choice. I'm famous [musician] on my neck of woods, and my face has appeared in newspapers since forever [long before the Web existed]. But I'm still not giving up my pursue of privacy.
I was careful not to allow my picture on the internet, that being said, someone else might have done it for you. An old photo from High School or College. Or like myself, your mother loads it to fucking Facebook, with your name attached to it.
I was diligent, but there is always some other idiot that will "help you out". Facebook=Skynet. Where the fuck is John Conner when you need him?
Think off all the illegals we could deport instead of watching them vanish faceless into crowds.
Alternate pronunciation: "we're wrong nearly one-third of the time".
Wouldn't surprise me the least if these 'employers' have Facebook accounts themselves; they really should be looking for LinkedIn profiles instead, unless they like to be made fun of down the local pub.
Google: Brenden Eich Proposition 8
Anonymity is the refuge of those of us who are otherwise powerless. Once it is gone, the Man can target anyone.
The biggest issue is probably longevity. Nothing gets deleted, and what's ok today is hounded tomorrow.
Things get old. Faces crumble. Tatoos fade. Opinions change. At 40 you're already invisible enough not to care.
So says the AC...
"Unheard of means only it's undreamed of yet,
Impossible means not yet done." ~~ Julia Ecklar
Just think, they will be able to prosecute everyone in the lynch mob now, all it will take is one good photo and they are all identified! Well unless they are wearing white sheets that is! Mob violence will no longer be safe and anonymous!
"It works by comparing photographs to profile pictures on Vkontakte, a social network popular in Russia and the former Soviet Union"
This makes no sense to me, didn't the USSR dissolve in 1991? Social networking wasn't really a thing back then, and even if it were Vkontakte was founded in 2006 which is well within the timeline of the Russian Federation.
So what does the USSR have to do with this?
Basically if you ever posted social media selfies
You are hosed, forever
Basically if you ever step out into public with your face exposed, you're hosed, forever.
It's just as bad in the UK, where CCTV is everywhere, recording everybody all the time.
Some terrorists said very bad things about you. They called themselves FindFace or something!
You know what to do.
The difference is that everyone will be able to see that they are hypocrites, and their opinions will be rendered obsolete.
How does posting a link that shows how being off-the-grid makes you a target for manipulation and extortion support the argument you are making?
How? You may have noticed that powerful people often remain in power even after being exposed as hypocrites. See: every politician ever.
The solution is shamelessness. It's surprising what you can get over after a very, very religious childhood and it may, in fact, help: you think about things in historic terms, in deeper philosophical colors. When they point to you and cry "we have his internet records, he likes wet pink teens on big black bobs" the proper responses is, "what REAL man doesn't!!!?"
Of course that doesn't mean they can't hack back/escalate, but you'd be surprised what kind of dirt you can get on those who might want to with just a *little* effort--really not a lot. And how a knowledge of modern mathematics, anonymity loopholes, and escrows insure that in the event anything happens, spectacularly powerful (possibly brutal) people are going to get black eyes (and may want to first give those who mess with you a black eye).
Last cop who tried to falsely arrest me turned white when I had him look-up my file. ;D
joke is on you, there are only pictures of my penis online, not my face!
pwned!
Such a person is a cheater. Cheaters destroy families and spread disease. When they die, the world becomes a better place.
Which DMV? Every US state and commonwealth has its own, even if it is not called the DMV, like in PA.
Well, if your job is related to social media, I can see it, but I doubt that the average auto mechanic is hired for his rad Facebook skilz.
Don't forget, the sources of these stories wanted people to be dumping their life's stories in a forum that they can monitor programmatically.
Also, how do they handle the multiple John Williams Problem? When I was listed in the whois database back in the 1990s, I received emails for someone else with my name at least once every few months, and my surname is not exactly common.
My aunt brings home tons of touristy pics from her vacations arounds the world, they'll never be on the internet. I find a random clear face in a crowd and then do my best impression of that face/angle/expression and take a pic. Then I morph my face with it so that it's about 70% my face and 30% the person in the background. I then upload the pics individually at random times to free galleries online and tag everyone with random names from a generator, including my various altered doppelgangers. I honestly don't know what would happen if someone tried to find my face or search for "similar images," they'd find completely random stuff.
I'm sorry, but I won't use MS Windows, Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, and similar products and services. Hell, if I could avoid a photo ID, SS#, and similar I would. It's nobody else’s businesses including the government who I am. We need to shrink the government to near-zero and stop babying everybody. If there wasn't actual harm that impacted a person there isn't a real crime occurring. A competent driver should not be required to get a drivers license. An incompetent one can still easily be removed from the road and jailed should they cause injury to someone. Words, images, etc can't physically hurt people and shouldn't be crimes. 'Protecting the children' leads to undemocratic societies. That is societies where people are censored and can't get genuine information.
If you think government should go- check out www.freestateproject.org and visit for Porcfest in June if you can. People who want freedom and liberty and don't believe the government should be using violence to get its way should come. The project is a migration effort which means the goal is to get 20,000 activists and liberty-minded people to move to one low population state where real change can then be had. We've had successes with electing liberty-leaning populations. This is not a democrat or republican thing and there are people who've moved on both sides of the pond. If you want near-zero government, to eliminate pointless regulations, eliminate laws that harm people who've done nothing to harm others (drug possession, etc), etc come join us!
Even if you've never held an account Facebook is maintaining a shadow profile and has crowd-sourced positive photo identification of you.
How can you "out" a porn star? And who ever thought showing your face in public was anonymous.
There are some strange ideas about what it means to be in public. And who ever said that making a movie for public consumption was a private affair?
There are some real things happening where your privacy is being violated. Most of these are occurring in the areas that are firmly recognized as being private by law. Such as violations by others into your own property. I will would worry more about that.