Facebook Knows How to Track You Using the Dust on Your Camera Lens
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Re: Facebook Knows How to Track You Using the Dust on Your Camera Lens
#2or if lens scratches or dust were detectable in the same spots on the photos, revealing the photos were taken by the same camera
With the prevalence of mobile phones, whose camera lenses are likely to be exposed to a lot more "scrubbing" than a professional/dedicated camera, I suspect this might not work so well.
Re: Facebook Knows How to Track You Using the Dust on Your Camera Lens
#3What's the news story here? Tech companies file innumerable number of patents without implementing them to cover the space in case they get sued so they can retaliate. Realistically this patent wouldn't actually be useful in practice for the proposed application but would be useful if written carefully enough to countersue for unrelated applications of the tech.
Re: Facebook Knows How to Track You Using the Dust on Your Camera Lens
#4or if lens scratches or dust were detectable in the same spots on the photos, revealing the photos were taken by the same camera With the prevalence of mobile phones, whose camera lenses are likely to be exposed to a lot more "scrubbing" than a professional/dedicated camera, I suspect this might not work so well.
Wouldn't it possible for it to work better if it is the case that more dense scrubbing patterns are complex enough to differentiate one camera from the other, and that such an algorithm can pick up on that?
Re: Facebook Knows How to Track You Using the Dust on Your Camera Lens
#5or if lens scratches or dust were detectable in the same spots on the photos, revealing the photos were taken by the same camera With the prevalence of mobile phones, whose camera lenses are likely to be exposed to a lot more "scrubbing" than a professional/dedicated camera, I suspect this might not work so well.
Wouldn't it possible for it to work better if it is the case that more dense scrubbing patterns are complex enough to differentiate one camera from the other, and that such an algorithm can pick up on that?
I agree. It seems to me that everyone's scrubbing would be different thus pretty unique.
Re: Facebook Knows How to Track You Using the Dust on Your Camera Lens
#6by comparing the accelerometer and gyroscope readings of each phone, the data could identify when people were facing each other or walking together.
More evidence we need far more privacy controls in mobile operating systems.
Re: Facebook Knows How to Track You Using the Dust on Your Camera Lens
#7I've come to believe that privacy "by design" is impossible in the hyper-connected age. There are too many vectors for tracking, linking, and de-anonymization and software in general is too insecure.
The only solution to the privacy problem is legislation. My favorite idea is HIPAA type regulations for intimate personal data like audio, location, etc. Leak location data? That will be $10,000 per incident where an incident is one record per person on a given day.
This would transform data like this into a liability rather than an asset, pushing companies to store it only long enough to perform a given service and to develop cryptographically blinded systems whenever possible to cut exposure.
As it stands all the economic incentives encourage all vendors (even small indy apps) to maximize privacy invasion at every opportunity.
Re: Facebook Knows How to Track You Using the Dust on Your Camera Lens
#8or if lens scratches or dust were detectable in the same spots on the photos, revealing the photos were taken by the same camera With the prevalence of mobile phones, whose camera lenses are likely to be exposed to a lot more "scrubbing" than a professional/dedicated camera, I suspect this might not work so well.
But it’s more part of an identifying composit “fingerprint” than as an individual unique identifier.
Re: Facebook Knows How to Track You Using the Dust on Your Camera Lens
#9I'm not really sure if that's a scary facebook thing or merely just an inconvenient reality of the world we live in now.
There's quite a few papers out on fingerprinting/identifying cameras from images taken with them using intrinsics (dust, scratches, slight offset of image sensor with respect to lens).
Re: Facebook Knows How to Track You Using the Dust on Your Camera Lens
#10I've come to believe that privacy "by design" is impossible in the hyper-connected age. There are too many vectors for tracking, linking, and de-anonymization and software in general is too insecure. The only solution to the privacy problem is legislation. My favorite idea is HIPAA type regulations for intimate personal data like audio, location, etc. Leak location data? That will be $10,000 per incident where an inc…
I usually come down on the libertarian side of things, but given the virtual monopoly by way of network effects, I do think some legislation for user derived data is necessary. These folk are not going to self regulate and waive potential revenue if they are not made to. I’d go so far as declare them “near utilities”.