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Face Recognition App Taking Russia By Storm May Bring End To Public Anonymity (theguardian.com)

Posted by msmash on from the anonymity-becoming-thing-of-the-past dept.

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.

35 of 157 comments (clear)

  1. Everybody put on a Putin Mask! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    And stick it to the man!

  2. Basically if you ever posted social media selfies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You are hosed, forever.

  3. Re:Basically if you ever posted social media selfi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

  4. Service by jdavidb · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.
    1. Re:Service by aicrules · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Or just leave both of them alone if they are both consenting adults. Just because I wouldn't be one or use one doesn't mean I need to go "exposing" those that do.

    2. Re:Service by stephanruby · · Score: 2

      It would also be helpful and possibly more equitable to out the people who frequent the sex workers.

      Don't worry. The 70% figure is a complete fabrication. The figure is more like 1 billion %. This is a click-bait slash-advertisement disguised as a news item.

      It's far easier to identify the Johns themselves thanks to commercial license plate scanner databases. Those are actually reliable (assuming a car is used during the interaction). And even then, they'd need to have pretty good video evidence to demonstrate that they were not just asking for directions, or that the girls didn't go up to their car unsolicited.

    3. Re:Service by twotacocombo · · Score: 5, Informative

      If one of them is married, though, there's a third, non-consenting adult involved, who deserves to know - and if there are people who feel like exposing this kind of thing,

      Then those people need to mind their own god damn business. Society only works when there is a certain level of anonymity and trust in your fellow strangers. If we can't leave our houses and do the things that are human nature (no matter how much you may disagree with them) without fear of someone willfully destroying your life, then we no longer live in a free society. You might as well go back in time and live in East Germany if you want your neighbors all up in your shit, having to watch everything you say or do. Only this is scarier...the people doing it willingly, without the Stasi pulling the strings? No thanks.

    4. Re:Service by Registered+Coward+v2 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Or just leave both of them alone if they are both consenting adults. Just because I wouldn't be one or use one doesn't mean I need to go "exposing" those that do.

      Never underestimate the ability of the morally superior to take exception with your behavior and decide what is best for you; until someone decides what they are doing is wrong and then comes the hypocrisy disguised as righteous indignation.

      --
      I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
    5. Re:Service by jeffmflanagan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Normally we learn to mind our own business when we live in high-population areas, so as to allow each other some privacy, but there will always be busybodies sticking their noses in other people's lives. Unfortunately that small group can now to much more damage than they once could.

    6. Re:Service by twotacocombo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If my wife is not being honest with me, I want to know about it. If I'm not being honest with her, she wants to know about it. If you want to help increase people's ability to deceive their spouse while stepping out, that's your business. And if I want to do the opposite, that's my business. :D

      Everyone has secrets. Maybe you should just trust your wife, and she should trust you, or you both can learn to deal with the alternatives. What if I told you I saw your wife banging the mailman last week, then you hauled off and killed her in a fit of rage? How is that going to make the world a better place? This sense of duty some people have to wreck other peoples lives in the pursuit of exposing the 'truth' makes me sick. Seriously people, if nobody's life is in danger, why inject yourself into the situation? And to be clear, I'm talking about strangers here. Friends and family do have more of a leg to stand on when doing things that affect others in their lives, but perfect strangers spying on others in order to expose them can go get right bent.

    7. Re:Service by lgw · · Score: 2

      This must be a cultural thing. Where I grew up, you kept your nose out of your neighbor's business, or you got shot. It's an easy habit to get into: "does this affect me directly? no? STFU!". Makes for far less drama in everyone's life, and better communities in general.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  5. A Change in Society by KermodeBear · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.
    1. Re:A Change in Society by Guybrush_T · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Mod parent up.

      For human-vs-human, I agree you can look at others but others can look at you too. You can find the name of a pretty girl and try to harass her, but then she can also report your name to the police.

      Things change however when it is human-vs-non human, like companies, state or police. Except for the police, they could already do it for years.

    2. Re:A Change in Society by Sir_Eptishous · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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?

      I imagine it will be both.

      People who need to maintain their "reputation" will need to be even more self-censoring than they were before. This will create a world(and it is already going this way) where anything you say, or do, any way you react to something, body language, facial expression, what videos you watch, books you read, music you listen to, things you post, etc will be recorded, analyzed and codified. A Police State that couldn't have been dreamed of by Orwell.

      Then again, there will be those with the need for a "streecred" type of reputation will do the opposite, and perpetuate their badassness...

      Eventually, there will be a corporate(Facebook) way of ranking people, which will impact us all in ways we don't even fathom.

      Those who don't need to maintain their "reputation" won't need to worry about it, either because they will have absolutely no financial stake in anything(where most people will end up) or they will be so wealthy that it won't matter.

      In some aspects of how human society is going, it reminds me of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", where to hide among the "converted" humans(Social Media-ized), non-converted humans had to hide their humanness.

      We are also seeing how the politicization and polarization in the First World is creating a more "us vs them" reality, and we also see that geographically, people of the same class/race/political view are "self balkanizing", meaning different groups don't mingle as much anymore, never see each other, live in separated areas, etc;

      --
      We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
    3. Re:A Change in Society by grumbel · · Score: 2

      I think before we see any large social changes we will see a lot of laws and regulation put into action against such technology. Social networks for example can lock away access to peoples photos behind a login and when logins are only given out to people who have verified their identity spidering becomes much harder. That's not even far future, many services already require a mobile phone number for id and some countries don't give you a mobile phone number anonymously. Collecting the data will still happen, but it will be much more troublesome and could be made illegal on top. So whenever somebody would offer a public search service, they could be shutdown relatively fast (unless Bitcoin and Tor make it commercially viable to put in the effort).

      Given the advances in computer graphics I could also imagine that social networks will get flooded with lots of fake data. Face swap yourself into all kinds of photos and it will become much harder to find who you really are, since lots of information about you online will be fake. So maybe we end up with a general distrust about data we found online about a person.

    4. Re:A Change in Society by Jason+Levine · · Score: 5, Insightful

      People who need to maintain their "reputation" will need to be even more self-censoring than they were before. This will create a world(and it is already going this way) where anything you say, or do, any way you react to something, body language, facial expression, what videos you watch, books you read, music you listen to, things you post, etc will be recorded, analyzed and codified.

      Or people will learn to self-moderate their online interactions the same way they self-moderate public face-to-face interactions. When I post something online, I think "Would I say this to a room filled with my wife, parents, friends, relatives, boss, co-workers, and (depending on the topic) my children?" If the answer is "No", I don't post it. If the answer is "yes", I go ahead and post it. Too many people will post a ten paragraph screed against their coworkers on Facebook and then act surprised when their boss finds it.

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    5. Re:A Change in Society by Kjella · · Score: 2

      After all, that camera could be pointed towards us - who are we to judge?

      Well I think it'll go both ways, the things that actually are pretty common but mostly happened in secret will be "normalized" because it turns out you're not that alone like say having an abortion after a one night stand. But if you've been in a donkey show then no, saying everybody's done something like that won't work. And there's always been the goody two shoes who really are trying for sainthood and bible thumping everyone else, not just being hypocrites. And there's what you share in what context, if I go to a BDSM swingers club that's really not something my colleagues or parents need to know. But I'm sure with this some asshat would put up a hidden camera outside the club and publish the members list.

      I'd go with way more repressed, because the things that will be normalized we already know is pretty normal, because people will admit to it in anonymous surveys and statistics just not with name and face. It's all the people that stick their heads out, even when everyone's exposed that'll get chopped down. Visiting any kind of establishment, gathering or protest becomes a way for your name to end up in a list. I bet totalitarian governments all over the world is drooling over this, just set up cameras at protests and you get lists of everyone involved. And if nobody shows, there is no protest so it's a win-win either way.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  6. As Seen In... by Etcetera · · Score: 2

    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,
  7. Sad next step by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.
  8. Privacy depends on anonymity by jenningsthecat · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.
    1. Re:Privacy depends on anonymity by geek · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I don't follow you. I'm very private, keeping most of my life to myself. I have coworkers who see me all day every day and in some ways see me more than my own family. They know almost nothing about my private life though. I'm not anonymous but I am quite private.

      I've never followed this logic that you have to be anonymous to be private. It just logically fails on every level. Why bother with encryption if you're anonymous? If you're not anonymous encryption keeps you private (when done correctly). Frankly anonymity appears to be a myth. It just does not seem to exist in reality.

    2. Re:Privacy depends on anonymity by Jason+Levine · · Score: 5, Interesting

      On the bright side, it will be a great help to those of us who have difficulty remembering people's faces.

      Now:
      Person I Should Know: "Hi, Jason. How are you doing?"
      Me: "Fine... um... you. How are you?"

      Soon:
      Person I Should Know: "Hi, Jason. How are you doing?"
      FindFace On Google Glass: "This is John Smith. He works for XYZ Corp and last e-mailed you about the Sprockets project."
      Me: "Fine, John. How's that Sprockets project going?"

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    3. Re:Privacy depends on anonymity by geek · · Score: 2

      Certainly. What you posted is fantasy though so I'll try to reply without sounding like a prick.

      Similar to web cookies, the aggregation of multiple sightings of you in public will construct an "identity" of you far more detailed than currently exists in the public record today. The sum total of where you live, where you shop, where you work, where (and who!!!) you visit will result in a profile fingerprint that's just as useful, simply lacking your name. It's enough.

      This is not an identity. Its meta data at best. Knowing where you went is easy to get now and has been for decades. Detectives have been doing this for a very long time to establish things like timelines. Just because you went to a library however does not mean you read a book. It is by no means or any stretch of the imagination "just as useful". That is, strictly put, fantasy.

      I would add that with all the friends and acquaintances I have who participate in social media, the name to go along with that profile won't be long in coming.

      Names are public record. Stored on birth certificates and death certificates. I've known 4 people in my lifetime with my exact same name, including middle name. One even shared the same birthday, seperated by about 3 hours (I was the elder). They know your name already. That they can correlate it with where you went at a particular time of day is irrelevent. Maybe you don't like people knowing where you went, thats fine. I'm not sure I do either. However, if where you went is a public place then you've already abandoned privacy.

      So with pictures on FindFace and the like, and the inevitable geolocation data attached to them, at some point my interests, food preferences, entertainment preferences, friendships, family associations, daily habits outside my home, fashion preferences, driving style, and probably many other things, become public knowledge available at almost anyone's fingertips.

      You'll have to provide a citation here as nothing int he article even begins to imply this. In fact anyone whos worked in big data of any kind as I do could tell you that these correlations are very hard to do. Data collection at that scale is impossible. We're back in fantasyland here with tin foil hats and an unhealthy dose of paranoid delusion. Simply put, you aren't that interesting.

      Wkipedia defines 'privacy' as "...the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves, or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively." I'd be interested to hear your take on how the situation I described above is even remotely compatible with the concept of privacy.

      Where you went is not information about you. Neither is how you drive on a public road. Information about you would be medical data, information/communication you do with others (which I would hope you would be encrypting). You've fallen into a trap that many people do. You've started off with the premise that people are looking for you. They aren't. You then proceed to list ways they "could" be looking at you, which they aren't. You then proceed to go on about how offensive this looking at you is, which it isn't because it isn't happening. You also go on to list ways in which this violates some made up idea of privacy (you have no privacy in public), which it doesn't.

      I don't say these things to be mean. This is common because you don't understand it, yet you're intelligent and struggle to understand it using filters you already possess, ignorant of the fact those filters are not adequate to this particular task. You must first understand where privacy applies (not in public), you can then decide when something is violating your privacy.

  9. And this is the free version by imcdona · · Score: 2

    Imagine with the likes of Facebook and other government agencies have at their disposal.

  10. A Scanner Darkly by ThatsNotPudding · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Or more likely: Middle Eastern style head coverings are about to become universal.

  11. Re: Basically if you ever posted social media self by GrumpySteen · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  12. Re:Basically if you ever posted social media selfi by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 4, Informative

    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...
  13. Re:And wearing a mask is illegal (in Minnesota) by CimmerianX · · Score: 4, Interesting

    1) found my own church.
    2) Commandment 1 - Thou shalt not expose your face in public. ....
    Now I'm legit because covering my face is my religious belief.

     

  14. Re:This is why by neo-mkrey · · Score: 4, Funny

    Stay in your mother's basement -- it's the only way to be sure.

  15. Re: Basically if you ever posted social media self by malditaenvidia · · Score: 2

    RMS has been vagrant for decades and he's doing alright. Maybe it's time to become free.

  16. Re: Basically if you ever posted social media self by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's coming. Employers think you're suspicious (or even a psychopath) if you aren't posting on Facebook every day...

  17. Re:Basically if you ever posted social media selfi by knightghost · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The biggest issue is probably longevity. Nothing gets deleted, and what's ok today is hounded tomorrow.

  18. Re:Basically if you ever posted social media selfi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

    Google: Brenden Eich Proposition 8

  19. Re:Basically if you ever posted social media selfi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Anonymity is the refuge of those of us who are otherwise powerless. Once it is gone, the Man can target anyone.

  20. Re:Basically if you ever posted social media selfi by CreatureComfort · · Score: 2

    So says the AC...

    --
    "Unheard of means only it's undreamed of yet,
    Impossible means not yet done." ~~ Julia Ecklar