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Through a Face Scanner Darkly

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Re: Through a Face Scanner Darkly

#21

Post by alexeisadeski3 »

username223 wrote: post #15
whackedspinach wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Laws may help some, but I worry that as devices get smaller and computers are integrated into everything, they won't be able to protect us for long. Ubiquitous computing may (in the next decade or two) actually obsolete any expectation of privacy. We need to start acting as if every digital device nearby is reporting information about us, because most of those devices will soon have that capability. In that case, I h…

You're hoping against both human nature and statistics. Even if 99% of people are decent, that 1% will still eventually screw you over for their own profit. Maybe it will come to active countermeasures. For example, you could set your browser (fingerprint and all) to trawl through an invented web history to poison tracking databases. Running such a program would both screw with the trackers and give you plausible den…

No, he's hoping that there are fewer opportunities for you to be screwed over for profit.

Re: Through a Face Scanner Darkly

#22

Post by giantrobothead »

alexeisadeski3 wrote: post #21
username223 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're hoping against both human nature and statistics. Even if 99% of people are decent, that 1% will still eventually screw you over for their own profit. Maybe it will come to active countermeasures. For example, you could set your browser (fingerprint and all) to trawl through an invented web history to poison tracking databases. Running such a program would both screw with the trackers and give you plausible den…

No, he's hoping that there are fewer opportunities for you to be screwed over for profit.

Unfortunately, those opportunities appear to be as boundless as human stupidity.

Re: Through a Face Scanner Darkly

#23

Post by mortenjorck »

GuiA wrote: post #9

"It’s much easier to meet interesting new people when we can simply look at someone, see their Facebook, review their LinkedIn page, or maybe even see their dating-site profile." How sad.

I'm still trying to figure out just what my reaction to that sentence was. It was some strange mixture of pathos, horror, and, contemplating a world in which such an idea has taken hold, how to unite people against such a thing.

Re: Through a Face Scanner Darkly

#25

Post by marquis »

username223 wrote: post #13
Silhouette wrote: post #4

Well, if there was ever any doubt that technology like Google Glass encourages creepy mass surveillance and that powerful new privacy laws are overdue, I guess there isn't any more. As far as I can see, the path this kind of technology leads us down is only likely to end one of two ways: 1. We develop a more open and forgiving society that acknowledges everyone has faults and treats everyone fairly as the person they…

As Eric Schmidt might remind us, "if you don't want anyone to know about something someday, maybe you never should have done it."

I wear corrective lenses. Every time I hear that I think of Pol Pot.

Re: Through a Face Scanner Darkly

#27

Post by gms7777 »

alexeisadeski3 wrote: post #8
drpgq wrote: post #5

My advice as a research scientist at company that makes face recognition software: big, dark sunglasses.

How about: No online profile?

Even if they had no online profiles that they personally created, for a lot of people theres enough stuff online about them besides that. I have a unique enough name that if you google my name and exclude social sites, in the first two pages you can find, where I went to high school, college, grad school, and what I studied there, various awards I won, sports and hobbies of mine, plenty of photos, and my most recent jobs. None of which I personally posted online.

Re: Through a Face Scanner Darkly

#29

Post by Silhouette »

mortenjorck wrote: post #23
GuiA wrote: post #9

"It’s much easier to meet interesting new people when we can simply look at someone, see their Facebook, review their LinkedIn page, or maybe even see their dating-site profile." How sad.

I'm still trying to figure out just what my reaction to that sentence was. It was some strange mixture of pathos, horror, and, contemplating a world in which such an idea has taken hold, how to unite people against such a thing.

Fortunately, your nightmare world would helpfully self-select those of us who share your horror for you to unite with, because presumably everyone who actually thought this was a good idea would be too busy only meeting people like themselves and consolidating their groupthink.

Personally, I concluded that the claimed functionality such as you described must have been added for comic effect, particularly the line in the next paragraph about how someone's facial recognition technology could help me to know whether someone who is presumably right in front of me at the time is attractive or not...

Re: Through a Face Scanner Darkly

#30

Post by dredmorbius »

Perhaps this fashion trend will resurface:

http://news.discovery.com/history/art-history/venice-masks-1...

In the 17th century, Brown said noblemen, patrician women, and other wealthy individuals began to wear masks and cloaks throughout the city. "This custom reached its apogee in the 18th century, as you can see in paintings by Pietro Longhi," Brown told Discovery News. She explained, "Masks and cloaks allowed one to move about the city anonymously, and thus offered considerable protection, as with the chador in the Islamic world. They also allowed women to frequent dubious places of recreation, such as gambling casinos, without compromising their respectability." She added, "It seems as if the upper class all wandered around in public space incognito in that period (the 18th century)."

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