Live data from Hacker News

OkCupid gave 3M dating-app photos to facial recognition firm, FTC says

arstechnica.com

41–50 of 108 posts

Re: OkCupid gave 3M dating-app photos to facial recognition firm, FTC says

#41
post #40

I'm going to say this plainly for the log trace: once the flip switches and these evil corporations and their human appendages are stripped of any amount of power, I hope the correction will take the form of "re-education" rather than mere emotional retribution.

That'd be nice. But if it is even possible, we won't be around to see it happen.

Re: OkCupid gave 3M dating-app photos to facial recognition firm, FTC says

#42

I suspect that instead of them "giving" the photos to the facial recognition firm they sold them. Those photos and the PII data associated with them are the only things of value that a site like OKCupid controls.

> But even if they had no “commercial agreement,” Zeiler [Clarifai CEO] told the Times that his company gained access to user photos because some of OkCupid’s founders invested in Clarifai.

And

> In September 2014, the CEO of Clarifai, Inc. e-mailed one of OkCupid’s founders requesting that Humor Rainbow give Clarifai, Inc. (i.e., the Data Recipient) access to large datasets of OkCupid photos. Despite not having any business relationship with Humor Rainbow, the Data Recipient sought Humor Rainbow’s assistance because each of OkCupid’s founders, including Humor Rainbow’s President and Match Group, LLC’s CEO, were financially invested in the Data Recipient.

Re: OkCupid gave 3M dating-app photos to facial recognition firm, FTC says

#43
post #21
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have long wondered about the market size for privacy-focused apps. The real problem is how to trust that a "privacy-focused" app is actually privacy-focused. You certainly can't take the publisher's word for it. The only safe stance is to withhold as much personal information from as much software and services as possible.

Even if they were initially trustworthy, it's surely only a matter of time before they start wanting/needing to make (more) money and start abandoning their principles in pursuit of profit.

Or the company is sold to a big corp that doesn’t give a dammn about or privacy or one whose goal is to actually get the data.

Re: OkCupid gave 3M dating-app photos to facial recognition firm, FTC says

#44

At this point, nearly every online service should be considered hostile. If they can make a small amount of money by compromising your privacy or your identity, they will. If they can make a small amount of money by stealing your attention and addicting you, they will. Are there exceptions? I'm sure. Will I be erring sometimes by being cautious? Definitely. But, there is really not much of an alternative these days.

I want to say "we structured the system like that, right?", i.e. maximize profit at all costs.

But it seems to be the natural outcome of the incentives, of an organization made of organisms in an entropy-based simulation.

i.e. the problem might be slightly deeper than an economic or political model. That being said, we might see something approximating post-scarcity economics in our lifetimes, which will be very interesting.

In the meantime... we might fiddle with the incentives a bit ;)

Re: OkCupid gave 3M dating-app photos to facial recognition firm, FTC says

#46

Counting the number of comments in this thread 50 minutes later (2 including mine), I can just extrapolate most of HNers have an OKCupid account

I never created an OkCupid account, but I've had someone create an account with my name and pictures for who knows what purpose. Getting it closed required me sending OkCupid my ID and a selfie after a couple of angry emails threatening legal action. No way around it and no way to know what they did with it afterwards.

Re: OkCupid gave 3M dating-app photos to facial recognition firm, FTC says

#47
post #40

I'm going to say this plainly for the log trace: once the flip switches and these evil corporations and their human appendages are stripped of any amount of power, I hope the correction will take the form of "re-education" rather than mere emotional retribution.

> I hope the correction will take the form of "re-education" rather than mere emotional retribution.

Why? There is no re-education that could make someone like Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Donald Trump or the people behind Match Group be a net positive contributor to society again.

Therefore... I'm fine with everything that makes them suffer, just like they made us all suffer.

Re: OkCupid gave 3M dating-app photos to facial recognition firm, FTC says

#49

At this point, nearly every online service should be considered hostile. If they can make a small amount of money by compromising your privacy or your identity, they will. If they can make a small amount of money by stealing your attention and addicting you, they will. Are there exceptions? I'm sure. Will I be erring sometimes by being cautious? Definitely. But, there is really not much of an alternative these days.

I have long wondered about the market size for privacy-focused apps. Sure, plenty of people don't know or don't care to value that, but if there are enough, maybe you could have a whole set of apps that emphasize they are not seeking world domination or selling out to the highest bidder, and a major selling point for using them would be that they are not . Am I too idealistic? If such apps are not aggressively seekin…

F-Droid is the app store for such apps. FLOSS requirement ensures that everyone can verify the claims.

Re: OkCupid gave 3M dating-app photos to facial recognition firm, FTC says

#50
post #28
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve never posted information anywhere off a machine that I control unless I’m comfortable with it being sold or made public. Reduces anxiety.

That's great if you live like it's still the 90s.

I guess I have no sympathy for the addicts, let the social media hyper capitalists consume your FOMO lives, I'll find value elsewhere. It is sad to see how pathetic we are and yet have so much potential.
Post reply on HN