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Facebook machine learning technology improves; Redditors alaramed.

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Re: Facebook machine learning technology improves; Redditors alaramed.

#31

Post by ErrantX »

nixy wrote: post #23
ErrantX wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I reckon they use image recognition too. I have a gash digital camera that gets a lot of use; no exif data beyond camera make/model. Anyway; in 2005 I went on a skiing trip to Chamonix. Pics were uploaded about a month later, no Facebook activity at the time (or while I was there). The other day FB asked me if they had been taken in Chamonix. So... something else used there at the very least.

How does Facebook use image recognition to recognize that an image of a baby on a blanket with no surroundings visible was taken inside a certain hospital? I doubt it. Regarding your Chamonix images, perhaps your friends uploaded photos taken at roughly the same time, with geo-tags? Perhaps you are tagged in some of them? That would make for pretty simple logic: - Facebook knows that you were at a certain place a cer…

Regarding your Chamonix images, perhaps your friends uploaded photos taken at roughly the same time, with geo-tags?

Nope. Family holiday. Of those there I am the only one with photos on Facebook - and in fact at the time was the only family member with a Facebook account :)

I am intrigued because if it is image recognition there isn't much for them to have gone on. But I am stumped for what else they could have used.

Re: Facebook machine learning technology improves; Redditors alaramed.

#32

Post by pud »

phpnode wrote: post #13
Peroni wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed but when I posted the pics it was 2 years later from a totally different continent and no reference to the location on the photos.

right, but assuming the timestamp is on the photos, facebook still knows where you were at the time they were taken. The time you upload them is immaterial

In your opinion, how would Facebook know your location if you never logged in from a GPS-enabled smart phone? (and never approved an HTML5 geo permission request on your laptop).

That's the interesting question here.

Re: Facebook machine learning technology improves; Redditors alaramed.

#33

Post by johnyzee »

JonnieCache wrote: post #19

The important thing to take away from this: If they can make guesses this accurate about your photos, imagine they guesses they're making behind the scenes about your life, your personality and your innermost thoughts. If there was a page on fb where it showed all the inferences they had made about you, sexuality, income, religion, philosophical viewpoints, mental health, etc. then people would run screaming. Of cour…

That is true. Mere statistical analysis on the word count on articles you prefer to read will give a very accurate insight into your interests and mindset. Facebook has access to this data through the "Like" button trojans that exist on many websites. If anything, they haven't been very impressive in putting this data to work yet (or I would be seeing a hell of a lot better targeted ads than currently).

Re: Facebook machine learning technology improves; Redditors alaramed.

#34

Post by zerostar07 »

JonnieCache wrote: post #19

The important thing to take away from this: If they can make guesses this accurate about your photos, imagine they guesses they're making behind the scenes about your life, your personality and your innermost thoughts. If there was a page on fb where it showed all the inferences they had made about you, sexuality, income, religion, philosophical viewpoints, mental health, etc. then people would run screaming. Of cour…

I thought google has more interesting data about all those.

Re: Facebook machine learning technology improves; Redditors alaramed.

#35

Post by drats »

JonnieCache wrote: post #19

The important thing to take away from this: If they can make guesses this accurate about your photos, imagine they guesses they're making behind the scenes about your life, your personality and your innermost thoughts. If there was a page on fb where it showed all the inferences they had made about you, sexuality, income, religion, philosophical viewpoints, mental health, etc. then people would run screaming. Of cour…

Indeed, with all the Facebook sharing buttons around the web they have more than your bookmarks too, they have the equivalent of uploading your browser history each day to them. With current machine learning technology, let alone improvements over the coming years, they'd know more or less what someone would know if they stood behind every time you were browsing for the last few years.

Even if you were to cancel your account you'd turn up in photos of parties on other people's accounts and they'd follow pretty well you after you'd left too. With their dodgy history, Zuckerberg's contempt for his own users as evidenced by his quotes, the idea that this won't be abused is laughable. Given national security letters (NSL) it's almost certain the intelligence community has access. Hell you could hit a mid-level admin at one of their data-centers with a NSL and the top level management and legal wouldn't even be aware that there are outside entities with a connection to their database. That's to say nothing of the extra-legal capacities of these people.

While people like to think that it's more or less anonymized clusters and demographics that are being passed to advertisers to target ads better - not a terribly scary thought, just more relevant ads - I think we need to be far more cautious.

Re: Facebook machine learning technology improves; Redditors alaramed.

#37

Post by phpnode »

pud wrote: post #32
phpnode wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

right, but assuming the timestamp is on the photos, facebook still knows where you were at the time they were taken. The time you upload them is immaterial

In your opinion, how would Facebook know your location if you never logged in from a GPS-enabled smart phone? (and never approved an HTML5 geo permission request on your laptop). That's the interesting question here.

well they can do a best guess based on the location of your IP, even if you only sign into facebook once while you're travelling. The really interesting question is: can they do this even if you have not signed into facebook at all on your travels, or for totally new accounts with no location history at all.

If they can, then they must be doing image recognition in some way. Perhaps someone who has more time / energy than me could try this by creating a new account and uploading some photos of recognisable objects (but without exif geo data).

Re: Facebook machine learning technology improves; Redditors alaramed.

#38

Post by jfoster »

Peroni wrote: post #10
phpnode wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but did you use facebook at all when you were in new zealand?

Indeed but when I posted the pics it was 2 years later from a totally different continent and no reference to the location on the photos.

When you were in NZ: [hh:mm dd/mm/yyyy, nz.ip.address] => [hh:mm dd/mm/yyyy, location]

When you uploaded the photos: [hh:mm dd/mm/yyyy, photo] + above data => [photo, location]

Re: Facebook machine learning technology improves; Redditors alaramed.

#39

Post by drats »

yogrish wrote: post #28
drats wrote: post #24

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scale-invariant_feature_transfo... Facebook almost certainly has more photo information than TinEye or Flickr, and of indoor environments probably more than Google (which has reverse image search too). Across any given bar or hospital Facebook would have maybe 5-10 other people with albums tagged with the name/gps/check-in. They'd only need one other album though. SIFT more or less turns…

But why that whole technology for just making a Suggestion? There is something else they are working on...something really BIG and a complete game changer I guess.

Well if the accuracy is 95% why not turn all Facebook users into one huge mechanical turk batch process to get to 99.9%? And it's just convenient for people not to have to tag.

Then you have the data sitting around for mapping the insides of all buildings like Google has it for street view. Sure your Asimo-style robot butler/"something really BIG" will be that more efficient with internal mappings of most public spaces when you release it in 2030, but the convenience is sufficient. Remember that Facebook beat Myspace more or less on interface (combined with a few other factors like exclusivity), they aren't going to let Google or some other competitor get ahead of them by having an interface convenience edge of 5-10% which might cause a Myspace-to-Facebook style exodus. Kings who have committed regicide on their predecessor are all too aware of how they got into power.

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