A crashed advertisement reveals logs of a facial recognition system

Post by laen » Thu, May 11, 2017, 2:05 AM UTC

_kb wrote: post #15

You'd be surprised / scared / outraged if you knew how common this is. Any time you've been in a public place for the past few years, you've likely been watched, analysed and optimised for. Advertising in the physical world is just as scummy as it's online equivalent. Check out the video here http://sightcorp.com/ for an ultra creepy overview. You can even try their live demo: https://face-api.sightcorp.com/demo_basi…

Post by geowwy » Thu, May 11, 2017, 2:09 AM UTC

TFortunato wrote: post #59

_kb wrote: post #15

You'd be surprised / scared / outraged if you knew how common this is. Any time you've been in a public place for the past few years, you've likely been watched, analysed and optimised for. Advertising in the physical world is just as scummy as it's online equivalent. Check out the video here http://sightcorp.com/ for an ultra creepy overview. You can even try their live demo: https://face-api.sightcorp.com/demo_basi…

I tried the demo. A little sad, that it sees me as 12 years older than I am, and that I apparently always look angry and disgusted! I'm going to blame it on my glasses and bushy beard, and try to look at the bright side - apparently face scanning systems aren't quite good enough to get a read on me yet. (And try not to be too sad about looking like a grumpy old man) (Anyone else with a glasses, a beard, or other non-…

Post by heywire » Thu, May 11, 2017, 2:12 AM UTC

aaron695 wrote: post #61

punk_coder wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if it's true, but a friend once told me the reason a store asked for your zip code was to see if they had a large audience coming from a certain area. This let them know other locations to possibly open other stores.

I've heard (unsure if true) it was to reduce entropy. IE they keep the last 4 digits of your credit card, combined with a post code you have a unique id.

Post by jabagonuts » Thu, May 11, 2017, 2:16 AM UTC

alsetmusic wrote: post #65

punk_coder wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if it's true, but a friend once told me the reason a store asked for your zip code was to see if they had a large audience coming from a certain area. This let them know other locations to possibly open other stores.

As far back as 2000, my partner was asked for her zip code as we made a purchase and I curtly replied "no comment," to the surprise of everyone there. She walked for her phone number, which really irritated me because this was a $5 retail purchase of some type), and I got more curt when I said, "You don't need that!" I've been annoyed by this stuff long before most people were ready to consider privacy concerns anyth…

Post by tyingq » Thu, May 11, 2017, 2:17 AM UTC

dragonwriter wrote: post #53

tyingq wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For those that haven't seen it, here's the scene where all the digital signage knows who John Anderton is: https://youtu.be/7bXJ_obaiYQ The movie was released in 2002, so fairly prescient.

It wasn't that prescient; public-location commercial facial recognition system had been deployed for several years, and companies were, IIRC, already actively promoting customer tracking and advertising applications at the time.