There was a great discussion I wont be able to find about this recently on HN after an article about a zebra/leopard patterned couch. Thwarting an image id algorithim is not difficult and the researcher came on and spoke about the problems in the space similar to this xkcd[0] comic. It is a super complex problem to solve. How far away are we? It is like the turing test, everytime someone gets close the term is redefined. It is certainly coming, maybe reasonable models in ~5 years publicly acknowledged. What can someone really do to prevent it? Short of making an account every few months with a lot of your data but different pictures, what american doesnt have a photo that has been published on the internet? Even if you dont have facebook, someone you know does. The tech will take a while to dev and refine, and longer to deploy at scale, but I can't think of a scalable solution to this.
The Era of Automatic Facial Recognition and Surveillance Is Here
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Re: The Era of Automatic Facial Recognition and Surveillance Is Here
#32Walk into a store, and the salesclerks will know your name. - they already do once you scan your store card The store’s cameras and computers will have figured out your identity, - store card and looked you up in both their store database and a commercial marketing database they’ve subscribed to. - store card again. They’ll know your name, - store card salary, - if you entered it and if you didn't lie when you filled…
Considering that Target can tell whether you're pregnant or not before you do based on your purchases, I'd assume that online habits encode your preferences a lot more strongly that one would like to think.
More info on that weird pregnancy story: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits.h...
Re: The Era of Automatic Facial Recognition and Surveillance Is Here
#33As someone with prosopagnosia (neurological inability to recognize faces) I find this incredibly frustrating. My everyday life would be immensely easier with assistive tech that told me the names of everyone I see. And now that the technology exists to develop such a useful device, what do we get instead? Mass societal surveillance.
I am no expert on this but the article suggested that the database of named photos was the hardest part to obtain for an individual. Since you would (probably) most value a database of people you have met before, a self generated database would be a good start to gaining access to this technology.
Re: The Era of Automatic Facial Recognition and Surveillance Is Here
#34As someone with prosopagnosia (neurological inability to recognize faces) I find this incredibly frustrating. My everyday life would be immensely easier with assistive tech that told me the names of everyone I see. And now that the technology exists to develop such a useful device, what do we get instead? Mass societal surveillance.
That would be the killer app for Google Glass. Not just for your situation, but for salesmen, customer service reps, security guards, politicians, or anyone who needs to recognize lots of people, recall names, and bring up an instant profile about the person standing in front of them.
(Granted, even this application has serious overtones of societal surveillance.)
EDIT: Anyone care to speculate on why Google Glass doesn't do this? Surely the processing capability is there.
Re: The Era of Automatic Facial Recognition and Surveillance Is Here
#35As someone with prosopagnosia (neurological inability to recognize faces) I find this incredibly frustrating. My everyday life would be immensely easier with assistive tech that told me the names of everyone I see. And now that the technology exists to develop such a useful device, what do we get instead? Mass societal surveillance.
That would be the killer app for Google Glass. Not just for your situation, but for salesmen, customer service reps, security guards, politicians, or anyone who needs to recognize lots of people, recall names, and bring up an instant profile about the person standing in front of them. (Granted, even this application has serious overtones of societal surveillance.) EDIT: Anyone care to speculate on why Google Glass do…
Google Glass bans facial recognition apps[0]. I've tweeted them about getting an exception for assistive tech but I've never pursued it any further[1].
[0] https://developers.google.com/glass/policies?hl=en [1] https://twitter.com/googleglass/status/463838878143492096
Re: The Era of Automatic Facial Recognition and Surveillance Is Here
#36A HN contest: Provide an elevator pitch, to completely non-technical end-users, that will make them aware of this issue and persuade them that it is important to them. Vote up the best ones. [EDIT: The goal is to persuade them about its dangers, not sell them something based on it] That elevator pitch is key. I have extensive knowledge about this issue but have a hard time coming up with it; I need to be prepared. Ch…
It's now easier than ever for the political party in power to spy on the opposition. Imagine what Nixon would do if he had the NSA surveillance powers that are available to the current President.
Republican, Democrat, or independent. Do you want any party to have that much power while in office?
Re: The Era of Automatic Facial Recognition and Surveillance Is Here
#37I no longer know what to do about this problem. I'm convinced surveillance is here to stay and that making it illegal will only serve to hide the microphones. I'm still extremely grateful for those who fight for privacy, is just that I don't see how we can win. Not knowing how to treat the cause, I'm at least trying to treat the symptoms. We might not be able to stop them from seeing our secrets, but we might very we…
> surveillance is here to stay and that making it illegal will only serve to hide the microphones. Certainly it's here to stay, but so is murder, theft, fraud, and many other things. We want to maximize the leverage and tools people have to fight it.
Unfortunately you can't put the genie back in the bottle. I don't think there's a real way to fight this in the age of networks and cameras in every pocket.
There are many good uses for the ability to instantly recognize and identify anybody from a crowd, as well as bad ones.
Probably the easiest way to frustrate these things would be the simplest; only go out in public with substantial facial features obscured or altered.
The degree to which tools with diverse uses, some of which may be bad, should be regulated is always a matter of serious controversy (cf. firearms). Whether it's legal or not, this tech will be used, so we need to get people to accept that and learn to recognize and frustrate its usage, instead of trying to deprive the populace of the tools that provide the function, which is ultimately futile.
Re: The Era of Automatic Facial Recognition and Surveillance Is Here
#38A HN contest: Provide an elevator pitch, to completely non-technical end-users, that will make them aware of this issue and persuade them that it is important to them. Vote up the best ones. [EDIT: The goal is to persuade them about its dangers, not sell them something based on it] That elevator pitch is key. I have extensive knowledge about this issue but have a hard time coming up with it; I need to be prepared. Ch…
In the near future, I will be able to point my phone at you, and know who you are.
Re: The Era of Automatic Facial Recognition and Surveillance Is Here
#39Walk into a store, and the salesclerks will know your name. - they already do once you scan your store card The store’s cameras and computers will have figured out your identity, - store card and looked you up in both their store database and a commercial marketing database they’ve subscribed to. - store card again. They’ll know your name, - store card salary, - if you entered it and if you didn't lie when you filled…
>> Maybe they’ll know your political affiliation or sexual identity,
>> - MAYBE, probably wrong.
>> both predictable by your social media activity.
>> - PROVE THIS.
There's plenty of work on that, google "link mining" or "entity resolution". Or have a look at this video for an introduction:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn91Jbc5UV0
But the point is really not whether your sexuality or political affiliation, or whatever characteristic is _really_ predictable. What is important is that people will _think_ they can predict it and then act accordingly- and treat you unfairly based on the knowledge they think they have.
The technology is certainly advanced enough and complex enough that a good salesperson can sell it to people who can't ever hope to understand it. In other words: it's consumer-ready as Google might say.
Re: The Era of Automatic Facial Recognition and Surveillance Is Here
#40A HN contest: Provide an elevator pitch, to completely non-technical end-users, that will make them aware of this issue and persuade them that it is important to them. Vote up the best ones. [EDIT: The goal is to persuade them about its dangers, not sell them something based on it] That elevator pitch is key. I have extensive knowledge about this issue but have a hard time coming up with it; I need to be prepared. Ch…
Real-life targeted advertising: bus-stop ads that scan your face, look up your private browsing history, and try to sell you the complete works of Nickelback or something equally embarrassing.