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Russia’s new FindFace app identifies strangers in a crowd with 70% accuracy

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Russia’s new FindFace app identifies strangers in a crowd with 70% accuracy

#71

Post by lafay »

clentaminator wrote: post #24

I wonder how effective systems like https://cvdazzle.com/ are against this. Will we all be putting on masks or face-paint in the future when we go outside?

~10 years ago I was at Disneyland and saw this family all decked out in really elaborate face paint. At the time I thought "How cool!" Then several months later I realized it was Heidi Klum and Seal after I saw them on the cover of a supermarket tabloid. Granted, the face paint was probably to disguise themselves from the paparazzi and autograph requests rather than AI facial recognition. But perhaps prescient nonetheless.

http://media2.popsugar-assets.com/files/upl0/0/88/08_2008/08...

Re: Russia’s new FindFace app identifies strangers in a crowd with 70% accuracy

#72

Post by redmaverick »

weavie wrote: post #42
axx wrote: post #9

That's the thing with personal pictures online. Most people can't imagine what is going to happen in the future. People on Hacker News well understand this issue, but ask your non-computer friends and family. If you'd tell them, that you can take a picture of a random person and search that picture out of a pool of people and get their contact info (as a private company / random programmer with enough data), they won…

The thing is, under a certain age everyone is doing it. When this current teenage generation grows up and gets into leadership positions - especially politics, they are all going to have their entire upbringing exposed for the whole nation to see. The few that haven't will be viewed with cynicism and will most likely not be accepted by the population. The population will be voting for their leaders based on how they…

That's a good point. But the only generation that's going to be affected is the facebook generation.The current teenage gen will just stick to whatsapp/kik conversations or snapchat and won't advertise themselves like fb gen did.

Re: Russia’s new FindFace app identifies strangers in a crowd with 70% accuracy

#73

Post by blub »

aub3bhat wrote: post #44
axx wrote: post #9

That's the thing with personal pictures online. Most people can't imagine what is going to happen in the future. People on Hacker News well understand this issue, but ask your non-computer friends and family. If you'd tell them, that you can take a picture of a random person and search that picture out of a pool of people and get their contact info (as a private company / random programmer with enough data), they won…

This is an unbelievably ridiculous argument, the government has data on almost entire population thanks to all sort of identification cards and other innumerable sources of data. Why should corporations and other people be denied the same access & privilege. You are spreading pure FUD, out of ignorance and misplaced sense of paternalism. The reality is that most people correctly understand the trade-off between priva…

As long as everyone has access to the data that's fair. What happens in practice though is that only a few actors with large resources do, thereby giving them even more power.

Re: Russia’s new FindFace app identifies strangers in a crowd with 70% accuracy

#74

Post by cm3 »

With all the data being collected, has anyone been able to use it to defend themselves based on location and time recorded? I tend to think that if we're recording all of it, it ought to be immutable and sealed so that one can at least use it as evidence, but the cynic in me thinks this isn't something the governing powers have any interest in allowing.

Re: Russia’s new FindFace app identifies strangers in a crowd with 70% accuracy

#75

Post by seren »

weavie wrote: post #42
axx wrote: post #9

That's the thing with personal pictures online. Most people can't imagine what is going to happen in the future. People on Hacker News well understand this issue, but ask your non-computer friends and family. If you'd tell them, that you can take a picture of a random person and search that picture out of a pool of people and get their contact info (as a private company / random programmer with enough data), they won…

The thing is, under a certain age everyone is doing it. When this current teenage generation grows up and gets into leadership positions - especially politics, they are all going to have their entire upbringing exposed for the whole nation to see. The few that haven't will be viewed with cynicism and will most likely not be accepted by the population. The population will be voting for their leaders based on how they…

In a way it is already here, with questions if US presidents have smoked/inhaled pot, if they were drafted or not in Vietnam.

I don't believe that it has a huge impact on voters.

Re: Russia’s new FindFace app identifies strangers in a crowd with 70% accuracy

#76

Post by axx »

aub3bhat wrote: post #59
axx wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what you're saying is, just because our governments collect everything, everybody else should be allowed to do it too, or stop worrying? The fight for privacy is not for us, it's for generations to come.

>> So what you're saying is, just because our governments collect everything, everybody else should be allowed to do it too, or stop worrying? Yes, Strong corporations and public rights, are necessary to ensure, that government does not becomes too powerful. And there is at least some balance of power. >> The fight for privacy is not for us, it's for generations to come. Please define "us"? "us" or "people" or "gener…

By that i mean, that our decisions today, will effect everything that follows.

If we educate people that privacy is a privilege, they might not do things (sharing personal information) in the future, that they would otherwise do.

And i'm not talking about world-changing stuff here, it's the little things, like sharing very personal information on social media, like my party picture example from above.

The problem is, most people don't understand the implecations of their doing. And that's why we, who understand those issues, need to educate them.

Another thing is, social media is sold as this warm and cozy place where all your friends are. But in reality, you share your information with big corporations that want to make money (which is totally fine, they provide a service).

People just need to understand, that social media is not a private and social environemnt, it's a tool, provided by a company that has (in most ways) no interest in your personal privacy.

Re: Russia’s new FindFace app identifies strangers in a crowd with 70% accuracy

#77

Post by imgabe »

axx wrote: post #9

That's the thing with personal pictures online. Most people can't imagine what is going to happen in the future. People on Hacker News well understand this issue, but ask your non-computer friends and family. If you'd tell them, that you can take a picture of a random person and search that picture out of a pool of people and get their contact info (as a private company / random programmer with enough data), they won…

> Even today it's no problem to analyze the Facebook picture of some random person and calculate a chance of that person being an alcoholic in X years based on the number of party pictures they share.

The problem is not that this calculation exists, but that people so easily misinterpret it. It doesn't mean "Person with these photos has a 65% chance of being an alcoholic in 5 years", what it REALLY means is "65% of the people with these photos became an alcoholic in 5 years".

That is a HUGE difference. For the remaining 35% there is perhaps some additional factor not included in the existence of the photos that guarantees there is a 0% chance of them ever becoming an alcoholic. When you try to apply general statistics about a large population to a single individual, it's not as simple as just saying "65% of the time this person will become an alcoholic". That's ridiculous anyway, because the person will only live one life, one time.

Re: Russia’s new FindFace app identifies strangers in a crowd with 70% accuracy

#78

Post by user_0001 »

weavie wrote: post #42
axx wrote: post #9

That's the thing with personal pictures online. Most people can't imagine what is going to happen in the future. People on Hacker News well understand this issue, but ask your non-computer friends and family. If you'd tell them, that you can take a picture of a random person and search that picture out of a pool of people and get their contact info (as a private company / random programmer with enough data), they won…

The thing is, under a certain age everyone is doing it. When this current teenage generation grows up and gets into leadership positions - especially politics, they are all going to have their entire upbringing exposed for the whole nation to see. The few that haven't will be viewed with cynicism and will most likely not be accepted by the population. The population will be voting for their leaders based on how they…

Didn't seem to effect George W too much

Re: Russia’s new FindFace app identifies strangers in a crowd with 70% accuracy

#79

Post by ape4 »

axx wrote: post #9

That's the thing with personal pictures online. Most people can't imagine what is going to happen in the future. People on Hacker News well understand this issue, but ask your non-computer friends and family. If you'd tell them, that you can take a picture of a random person and search that picture out of a pool of people and get their contact info (as a private company / random programmer with enough data), they won…

I use fake photo as a profile photo in facebook.

Re: Russia’s new FindFace app identifies strangers in a crowd with 70% accuracy

#80

Post by 3v3rt »

clentaminator wrote: post #24

I wonder how effective systems like https://cvdazzle.com/ are against this. Will we all be putting on masks or face-paint in the future when we go outside?

Whenever I see some of these 'countermeasures' I usually run them through some high end commercial face recognition algorithms I have access to. In many of the cases the countermeasures are completely ineffective. They may fool some things like opencv DIY algorithms, but not the expensive stuff :). For those the most effective strategy is to just tilt your head to the left or right a lot, though that will possibly give you a sore neck and you'll definitely look silly.
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