The Buzz
Earlier this morning, I came across an article by CNN News as well as many others that mentioned the transition that Facebook is moving towards in the next couple of weeks. Apparently, Facebook is going to implement a face recognition algorithm that can detect faces in all of the images that are uploaded to the social giant.
The Problem
Unfortunately this creates big privacy concerns. So after this, what's next? Software that can take a picture of someone and look them up online to find out who they are? That was in fact a real project that Google worked on but quickly put it to a halt due to privacy issues. It is almost creepy to know how technology is in a sense taking over.
First, we get the cameras in every corner of large intersections monitoring traffic, then RFID chips come into existance for purposes of keeping health records, then we hear something about the government monitoring our communications lines through a backdoor on Windows 7 for "national security purporses," now we are moving into facial recognition. Does anyone see a pattern here or is it just me?
I am under the impression that technology as it advances, it also comes with a price. Think about how many applications we have that send out information about our location, likes, dislikes, etc. Recently this year there was an allegation with Tom Tom GPS company because they apparently had devices that transmitted the speed of the vehicle to the police department in order to "provide safer drivers." We are being monitored and tracked on the grid. It is scarry and sounds crazy but I believe that is what is going on. Anyways, apologies for the side track here.
The Results
As a way to respect the privacy of users, Facebook has included a way to turn off the setting for allowing you to be automatically tagged in pictures that recognize you by the algorithm. Needless to say, your face and the fingerprint that identifies you is still stored on their systems. I wonder what kinds of interests that sparks for cyber criminals?
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