Invasive Use of Facial Recognition Tech Already Widespread
Facial recognition is getting better by leaps and bounds, and some of the examples of how it is being used are disturbing. In Russia, the website FindFace matches submitted photos to VK, that country’s Facebook knock-off. Trolls are using it to identify and harass women who appear in adult videos. China uses cameras with facial recognition to tag jaywalkers, and, in Dubai, police wear Google Glasses to identify people. In the U.S., the government facial recognition system can already identify the faces of half of all American adults.
Psychology Today ticks off more of the ways that facial recognition is being developed, many times with sobering implications. “Now researchers are developing techniques that not only identify people by their faces but also infer what’s in their minds,” using facial expressions to identify emotions and “facial structure [to] hint at our genetic makeup.”
At Carnegie Mellon University, privacy researcher Alessandro Acquisti matched student photos to Facebook profiles to harvest names, interests and other information, then used these data points and “another algorithm” to find Social Security numbers. His team was able to successfully find the first five digits for about 25 percent of the participants. Next, Acquisti’s team created a demo iPhone app that, when the phone’s camera was pointed at a stranger, displayed his name, SSN, and date and state of birth.
“Informed consent” may be an illusion, says Psychology Today...
“It’s easy to see race and class biases becoming embedded and amplified,” concluded Psychology Today.
See the full story here: http://www.etcentric.org/invasive-use-of-facial-recognition-tech-already-widespread/