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A crashed advertisement reveals logs of a facial recognition system

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Re: A crashed advertisement reveals logs of a facial recognition system

#411

As someone working on a similar project (specifically, emotion recognition) I'm highly interested to hear how such a product should look like to be not considered unethical. So far from the comments I see that: - it should be made clear that you are being analyzed e.g. by big yellow sticker near the camera - no raw data should be stored - it should be used to collect statistics, not identify individuals (?) Is it suf…

The fact that it's secret is what bothers me the most.

Re: A crashed advertisement reveals logs of a facial recognition system

#412
post #389
post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just yesterday I was hearing news of how most of the retail giants and lots of smaller retail stores are going out of business due to competition from ecommerce. If that means the end of practices like this, then good riddance.

But, aren't ecommerce sites collecting this information and more from your browsing? I don't think it's possible to say one is much better than the other, just that we expect tracking online, not in the real world.

They're even more accurate than facial recognition at building a profile of what demographic you fit in

Re: A crashed advertisement reveals logs of a facial recognition system

#413
post #389
post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just yesterday I was hearing news of how most of the retail giants and lots of smaller retail stores are going out of business due to competition from ecommerce. If that means the end of practices like this, then good riddance.

But, aren't ecommerce sites collecting this information and more from your browsing? I don't think it's possible to say one is much better than the other, just that we expect tracking online, not in the real world.

There is the point that in the "real world", social norms haven't yet adapted to the requirements of privacy (although you could also view it as societal norms allowing too much tracking). For example, if I wanted to use a mask to conceal my face from trackers, I would be ostracized. There are analogues in the virtual world of course, but it's usually harder in the physical world.

Re: A crashed advertisement reveals logs of a facial recognition system

#414
post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're going to have to accept that what you are doing is disliked and considered unethical by the majority.

I'm curious what's the boundary between ethical and unethical. People constantly analyze each other's mood and it's perceived positively. But doing the same thing massively using automated tools is often considered inappropriate. So is it because of using technology, massiveness, purposes? I hope there's a way to make such things both efficient and not unethical.

It is unethical because there's no "opt-out" option. You have taken a photo of me without my consent, used it for intents to increase profit despite not having my consent; and furthermore, attaching personal data to it is Orwellian and a complete invasion of my privacy. I can go out in public and have nobody know who I am. A retailer should not have access to my identity (since they can cross-reference other data sets to deanonymize me)unless I interact with them and hand over information of my own volition.

Re: A crashed advertisement reveals logs of a facial recognition system

#415
post #342
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…

Woah, so this got a bit of interest. To be honest I'm a little surprised this seems to be news to the HN crowd. I feel a little bad about calling out one API provider specifically, so here's a bunch more: https://www.kairos.com/ https://skybiometry.com/ https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/cognitive-service... http://www.affectiva.com/ http://www.crowdemotion.co.uk/ http://emovu.com/e/ https://www.faceplusplus.…

To be honest this is news to me and I lurk on hn every day :-/

I thought Minority Report was still a few years away...

Thanks for the links, this stuff is both fascinating and scary.

Re: A crashed advertisement reveals logs of a facial recognition system

#416
post #342
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…

Woah, so this got a bit of interest. To be honest I'm a little surprised this seems to be news to the HN crowd. I feel a little bad about calling out one API provider specifically, so here's a bunch more: https://www.kairos.com/ https://skybiometry.com/ https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/cognitive-service... http://www.affectiva.com/ http://www.crowdemotion.co.uk/ http://emovu.com/e/ https://www.faceplusplus.…

[deleted]

Re: A crashed advertisement reveals logs of a facial recognition system

#417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Retailers also use your MAC address from your phone which is always being published unless you take precautions. http://lifehacker.com/how-retail-stores-track-you-using-your...

Not on iOS anymore, that value is scrambled on a regular basis.

Only if your phone is locked and it is looking for all open wifi networks. If you unlock it or it is connected to a particular wifi network this is not true.

Re: A crashed advertisement reveals logs of a facial recognition system

#418
post #337
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…

Indeed. This isn't new. It's everywhere . The cameras retailers use with their surveillance systems are coming with facial recognition built in now. [1] And lots of retailers, banks, etc, are using systems that track people's visits across multiple locations. [2] You'll see a lot of these systems being sold as fraud/loss prevention solutions. The reason for this is that it's a relatively easy sell this way - customer…

That's always going to be tempting, and the only real tractable solution is for society to have a larger conversation on the ethics so the law can catch up with it.

Note that some ethical consensus is key---without it, companies can just price "Well, some customers think image recognition is creepy" into the risk model and do it anyway. Compare privacy concerns---people talk big about their concerns over privacy, but in practice, we're still in a world where a survey-taker can get very personal information from a random individual at a mall by offering a free candy bar. Until and unless people arrive at a common consensus that their personal information---including their face---has value or they have a proprietary right to that information, even in public, there's no real tractable solution to this problem.

... because there's no real agreement that there's a problem to solve.

Re: A crashed advertisement reveals logs of a facial recognition system

#419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not on iOS anymore, that value is scrambled on a regular basis.

Only if your phone is locked and it is looking for all open wifi networks. If you unlock it or it is connected to a particular wifi network this is not true.

No necessarily. If you are connected to some wifi and sending/receiving data, your MAC is still visible in the air.

Re: A crashed advertisement reveals logs of a facial recognition system

#420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it an ethical issue for strangers to look at your face when you are out in public?

More like strangers taking pictures of you without your consent (and often knowledge) with the intent to increase their profits and not sharing any of that with you.

And then able to follow you and know your present location whenever you go by a camera.

Minority Personalized Advertising https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bXJ_obaiYQ

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