Facebook announces facial recognition feature ... Good or Bad?

[kenny]

FB tells us about the benefits.

Can you imagine any downsides?

https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/19/facebook-facial-recognition-photos/

 

[YadaYadaYada]

Horrible but I've been on FB for years and posted pictures and it would put a square over DH's face and his name would immediately pop up. Talk about creepy. Yeah they spin this as good for the user but they are concerned about profits, not user privacy.

I read recently that Facebook was developed by people with experience in gambling addiction, they want you to constantly check, constantly connect. Since then I've been making a serious effort to stay off of it and will probably delete my account next year but they already have all the information they need

 

[kenny]

Horrible but I've been on FB for years and posted pictures and it would put a square over DH's face and his name would immediately pop up. Talk about creepy. Yeah they spin this as good for the user but they are concerned about profits, not user privacy.

I read recently that Facebook was developed by people with experience in gambling addiction, they want you to constantly check, constantly connect. Since then I've been making a serious effort to stay off of it and will probably delete my account next year but they already have all the information they need

Doesn't deleting one's account also delete all the content uploaded by that user?

 

[YadaYadaYada]

So they say but how do we know the information isn't stored somewhere?

 

[lyra]

I've been on the internet since almost day one, lol. You won't find a pic of me anywhere, nor my real name. Comes from strong paranoia even in the earliest days. My dogs are somewhat free game though. They are not out in "public" much, so I don't think their privacy is too much at risk.

 

[kenny]

It's all just so disappointing to me.

 

[monarch64]

I drive for Uber in my spare time. Once every so often the app will ask me to verify myself with a facial recition thingie. No big deal.

 

[lyra]

Sure it's disappointing, but the targets aren't those of us of a certain age. It's the millenials (like my daughters!) who use their real names, post pictures, say where they work and all that other data, that are being "tracked". And they don't even seem to care. They think I'm wacky for having made up names, different ones even, for every site I use. There's always a hitch. Nothing in life is free.

 

[monarch64]

For me it’s a toss-up. While it would be great to remain anonymous, I also find it potentially IMMENSELY helpful to be “tracked.” As a woman, safety is a constant concern, and I hope that if I am ever held or taken against my will someday that technology makes it possible for me (or my loved ones!) to be found quickly.

Kenny I don’t know if you’ve examined it from that angle but you might take that into consideration before you 100% deem it 1984 and unnecessary. Of course you can think whatever you want but from a female POV it doesn’t completely suck.

 

[MaisOuiMadame]

Hmmm, I got a wake up call in the VERY early days of the internet, when someone stalked me and called at my parent's house after he'd found out my real name. He had just written down my name when I talked to him on the phone at work. Then found my pic that was online on the corporate website.
Creepy. Been EXTREMELY careful ever since. It took me years to de - lurk on PS
So I'm with @lyra : scary stuff!!

 

[kenny]

For me it’s a toss-up. While it would be great to remain anonymous, I also find it potentially IMMENSELY helpful to be “tracked.” As a woman, safety is a constant concern, and I hope that if I am ever held or taken against my will someday that technology makes it possible for me (or my loved ones!) to be found quickly.

Kenny I don’t know if you’ve examined it from that angle but you might take that into consideration before you 100% deem it 1984 and unnecessary. Of course you can think whatever you want but from a female POV it doesn’t completely suck.

Legit point, of course.
But on the other hand a hacker may figure out how to use all this tracking (now with more pictures) to abduct you.
Hacking happens every day.

 

[Madam Bijoux]

Facial recognition puts too much info out there. So does the fingerprint recognition that Apple uses.

 

[CJ2008]

It's all good until it's not...and then it's too late.

 

[telephone89]

I hate anything face recognition lol.

 

[OoohShiny]

What's that saying about how to boil a frog?

 

[CJ2008]

What's that saying about how to boil a frog?

(hate the saying, poor little frog) but right, that's exactly it...

 

[House Cat]

I watch a lot of Dateline. It seems that law enforcement has been using this technology for a while. Whenever they want to know the whereabouts of a certain suspect, they can link the surveillance footage of all of the cameras in town. They compile that with cell phone data and boom...they know exactly where the suspect has been.

If you own a cell phone and have a face, you are no longer anonymous. This is a fact in our society.

 

[kenny]

... If you own a cell phone and have a face, you are no longer anonymous.
This is a fact in our society.

Not so.
My cellphone is like the one below.
$9.95.

It can't GPS track me because it has no data plan, or Internet connection.
It can't do that. (Oh, Darn! )
No camera.
It's just a cellphone.
No face recognition concerns or fingerprint hacking concerns.
FWIW I believe police could determine which cellphone tower it was near when in use ... but they can't GPS track me within a few meters, like the usual smartphone.

I walk into a store of the service provider and prepay minutes with cash.
It averages $10 to $15 a month.
It's even under someone else's name.
When I pay they ask for a name so I give them that person's name.

I'ver read many people are going back to these lower-stress devices.
I love mine.
No downside.

 

[lyra]

Kenny, your paranoia far exceeds mine. While I'm anonymous online, I do have a cell phone. It is for receiving texts and sending dog pics to my immediate family. But horror of all horrors, I admit we use a family tracking app on our phones. We do this so we always know where our adult daughters are, and for them to know where their dad is, as he travels all over the world and none of us can keep track. Mine always shows me at home, because that's where my phone lives. I never take it with me! We also have a landline. I know, it makes no sense at all. I just like the redundancy, although the landline is internet based, so if the internet goes down, so does the landline. Lol.

 

[monarch64]

If I had no smartphone I wouldn’t know how to live. I almost bought a paper planner yesterday and then thought “that’s a waste since I never write anything down on paper!” I just can’t imagine going back now. It’s cool that some folks exercise their right to resist, though. I can totally understand that.

 

[Dancing Fire]

I am one of the few person on earth who is not on FB.

 

[OoohShiny]

Kenny, your paranoia far exceeds mine. While I'm anonymous online, I do have a cell phone. It is for receiving texts and sending dog pics to my immediate family. But horror of all horrors, I admit we use a family tracking app on our phones. We do this so we always know where our adult daughters are, and for them to know where their dad is, as he travels all over the world and none of us can keep track. Mine always shows me at home, because that's where my phone lives. I never take it with me! We also have a landline. I know, it makes no sense at all. I just like the redundancy, although the landline is internet based, so if the internet goes down, so does the landline. Lol.

In a small land like the UK, it still seems bizarre to me that anyone feels the need to be tracked - it's a small island, there's really not many places people can disappear! You see it on the news in murder cases - a body will be discovered in the middle of nowhere because, for whatever reason, us Brits like walking outdoors amongst the scenery!

In the US, though, I guess I can appreciate it more. Given how vast it is and how little of it is barely populated, it actually surprises me that more people don't go missing without trace. I always think that it would only take one nutcase to kidnap a lone person and take them to their Saw-esque dungeon, and the world would never even notice the person missing.

(Now I think about it, wasn't there a case that hit the news where a pig farmer (?) was arrested for murder and suspected murder of 400+ people??)

So, I get it. But I also think "Surely they'd just throw the phone away while abducting you?" lol

If I had no smartphone I wouldn’t know how to live. I almost bought a paper planner yesterday and then thought “that’s a waste since I never write anything down on paper!” I just can’t imagine going back now. It’s cool that some folks exercise their right to resist, though. I can totally understand that.

Before smartphones we had PDAs, that weren't GPS enabled and didn't record our every move (and our every sentence through voice recognition, and every feature of our face through facial recognition, and every feature of our fingerprints through fingerprint recognition...) - they were just as digital as smartphones!

Apple et al have done their best to make the tech as easy to incorporate into life as possible, to the point that we now rely on it - meanwhile people seem happy to give away their every personal detail for this convenience!

I can appreciate the convenience aspect, I really can, but I don't understand why we aren't making more of a fuss about why they have to keep records of us for 2+ years (or even longer, I'm sure). Surely a month is all that's necessary, for billing purposes??

I am one of the few person on earth who is not on FB.

I am in that club also! (Although Facebook once seemingly tried to automatically sign me up, grrrrr.)

 

[lyra]

People in our extended family refuse to be tracked with the app, lol. I guess it's harder to screen calls from us if we know they're at home. Wish I was kidding, but I'm not. Really for us it's just a way to quickly tell where everyone is at that moment. Daughter1 drives a ton for work. Daughter2 works downtown and has a long train commute. And DH is always away. I'm always home. We aren't thinking in terms of crime. More like who's going to be home for supper and when. Since I leave my phone at home and rarely go out on my own, no one really knows what's up with me. I don't care who has that info. I'm not committing any crimes.

 

[Karl_K]

not having a Facebook account wont help much. A friend posts a pic and say this is my friend Kenny and bang your in the database. Even without a name listed it will match it as person unknown to other photographs of the same person.
Given the reach of FB and how the huge databases are more and more getting tied together it has a very bad potential.
Your gas card is tied to your credit card is tied to your bank account is tied to your job data is tied to your email account is tired to your store cards is tied to anything online is tied together with your credit report and DMV and is then tied in with your health insurance and pharmacy and the cameras all around town to the gps in your cell phone.
Is it already all tied together? It depends on who you ask?
It is where it is headed however, everything is tracked.

 

[kenny]

not having a Facebook account wont help much. A friend posts a pic and say this is my friend Kenny and bang your in the database. Even without a name listed it will match it as person unknown to other photographs of the same person.
Given the reach of FB and how the huge databases are more and more getting tied together it has a very bad potential.
Your gas card is tied to your credit card is tied to your bank account is tied to your job data is tied to your email account is tired to your store cards is tied to anything online is tied together with your credit report and DMV and is then tied in with your health insurance and pharmacy and the cameras all around town to the gps in your cell phone.
Is it already all tied together? It depends on who you ask?
It is where it is headed however, everything is tracked.

While that makes many people give up, pull their pants down and spread their legs to big data, it merely strengthens my resolve to stay off their databases as much as possible.

I pay cash nearly everywhere for this reason.
Actually, no, my bank account is not tied to my job data.
When the clerk ask for my zip or phone number I decline, or give a fake one.
No GPS on my cellphone, which doesn't even connect to the Internet ... that means I've never downloaded an ap.
No store credit cards or buyer tracking cards (membership cards).
No gas card ... I actually walk in and pay cash to get the lowest price.

... and IMO not being on FB IG or TWITLAND helps quite a bit.

I won't play.
But y'all knock yourselves out.

 

[GliderPoss]

I think it's scary AF and I hate the idea. I already don't have FB nor do I have location tracking on my mobile phone but I'm still realistic enough to know I could be found if someone really wanted to. Particularly where I'm currently living there is NO privacy - everything is tracked by the government. Cameras everywhere. Everything is linked on a Government database - drivers license, passport, health card, visa, work permit, banking etc. Even phone calls & messages are listened to so I have to always be careful what I say. We are not enjoying this....

 

[lyra]

Okay. Just give me some good books to read and I'll retire to my cabin deep in the woods. If I had one... Actually, that would be more like my dream come true!

 

[OoohShiny]

You're going to be in a crown of 60,000 people. Think you can relax and enjoy yourself and just be part of the crowd?

Think again...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-43751276


@mochiko42 referenced China's surveillance state earlier:
https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/hello-1984.236102/#post-4259108

and it sounds like India is also doing its best to roll out biometric ID for everyone:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-43619944

but is anywhere else really that far away? Cameras cameras everywhere, and as much being recorded as possible 'just in case', yet little evidence of actual crime prevention - I'd much rather a crime was prevented (or people actually have some social morals...) than be a victim and just have some footage that might or might not catch the perpetrator later!


Either way, it seems that FB are keen to push ahead with the Facial Recognition roll-out:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-43797128
even though they are facing a class action over its roll-out to date!:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-43792125

 

[perry]

Fingerprints and facial recognition are very unsecured. Hint: If it's easy to do - it's likely unsecured.

So now someone can open your account with a photograph or a replica of a fingerprint. Those are very well documented known ways to access such accounts (known for years). Also: Facebook, and other companies have no meaningful legal responsibilities if they allow someone to hack your data and use it elsewhere.

Here is a legal angle most of you have not thought of:

According to court rulings within the USA: If your phone can be unlocked by your face or finger - the cops can hold your phone in front of you, use a photograph, are press it against your finger, or use a fingerprint replica, and unlock and access all data without a search warrant: Your security is based on a "public feature" - thus you have no right to privacy.

They cannot force you to divulge a password or pass-code if you are within the USA (crossing into and before entry is another matter). You can not only refuse - you can plead the 5th amendment.

Far to many people are looking for the "convenient" and far to many companies lie about how this is secure.

Have a great day,

 

[luv2sparkle]

I don't post much to FB, and I really dislike most of it. I keep an account to see certain quilting groups I enjoy and a couple keto groups. I like seeing recipes people come up with and the new cookbooks. I think you can delete your account but it is really never gone. You can sign up again and get all your information back.

I also pay cash for almost everything. I use one credit card that I keep with a zero balance for online purchases so I would know immediately if it is compromised.

I have a iPhone but I will not ever use one with face recognition.