Face Recognition Software weirds me out

[RoJoHen]

I don't know if any of you have uploaded any photos to Facebook lately, but they have recently updated their face recognition software, and it weirds me out. It knows who you are!

Before, when you uploaded photos, it didn't do anything. You had to manually tag people in the photos.

Then, it started being able to recognize where faces were, but you still had to tag everyone manually.

Now, it knows who the faces belong to! I uploaded several photos over the weekend and Facebook already had the faces tagged with the correct name!

On the one hand, it's kind of cool that technology allows us to do that. On the other hand, this feels like technology that we should reserve for cops and FBI agents. Having it available on Facebook just seems wrong to me.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Before long, they'll have this in cameras and it will instantly know who you're taking pictures of. There's already facial recognition in cameras so the camera can more easily take out redeye, do color correction, and focus on what you want. It's not too much of a leap to think it could have a "face database" and be able to identify everyone in every picture you take, making Facebook uploads and photo album building that much easier.

 

[sojourner]

Facebook??? what's that?

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Facebook??? what's that?

I salute you for your truly novel comment, sir. I'm sure it's never occurred to anyone, anywhere, at any time, that it might be amusing to pretend that Facebook--a social networking service with over half a billion members--might be completely unknown to an English speaker who frequently uses the World Wide Web.

Indeed, it becomes even more side-splitting when one considers the existence of competent search engines like Google and Bing, either of which would enlighten the curious as to what a "Facebook" is in a matter of seconds.

But no, you took the high road. You don't follow the trends. You might even wear a cape. My hat is off to you for your unparalleled brilliance. Your efforts give me renewed faith in humanity.

Carry on, brave TrekBBS poster!

 

[RoJoHen]

^My response was not going to be that nice.

 

[sojourner]

In the immortal words of Elvis, "Thankyou, Thankyou very much".

I am just a very private person and see no need to use Facebook. I make no judgement of others using it. To each his own.

 

[JarodRussell]

I uploaded several photos over the weekend and Facebook already had the faces tagged with the correct name!

I don't think they are allowed to do that.

 

[ALF]

Facebook itself weirds me out, period.

 

[RoJoHen]

Well, they did it.

 

[Lindley]

Recognizing anyone is a task best left to the CIA. Even recognizing any member of facebook might be too taxing. But recognizing a face from a friends list of maybe a few hundred? Not really so hard by comparison.

 

[B.J.]

That would bug me (if I used Facebook), especially if I was uploading pics of my kids. I disabled the geotagging capability of my camera phone for similar reasons.

 

[Sephiroth]

hmmmmmm, sounds like a good stalking tool...

 

[Skellington]

Facebook??? what's that?

It's a means of playing Scrabble online.

 

[sojourner]

I thought it was for finding women of loose morals?

 

[MNM]

^ That was Myspace....

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I thought it was for finding women of loose morals?

OKCupid is way better for that.

Or Plentyoffish, if you aren't too choosy about how they look.

 

[Silvercrest]

I don't know if any of you have uploaded any photos to Facebook lately, but they have recently updated their face recognition software, and it weirds me out. It knows who you are!

Before, when you uploaded photos, it didn't do anything. You had to manually tag people in the photos.

Then, it started being able to recognize where faces were, but you still had to tag everyone manually.

Now, it knows who the faces belong to! I uploaded several photos over the weekend and Facebook already had the faces tagged with the correct name!

On the one hand, it's kind of cool that technology allows us to do that. On the other hand, this feels like technology that we should reserve for cops and FBI agents. Having it available on Facebook just seems wrong to me.

Although I am on Facebook, I see it as largely pointless. I use it for looking up old friends, and that's about it. I only give it a limited amount of personal information, I don't broadcast every little thing I'm doing, and I don't partake in any of those silly little third-party applications or quizzes that distribute your data to who knows where. I'm not as private as sojourner, but I see no reason to hand out my information to just anyone. It was probably a mistake for me to put my city in my TrekBBS profile.

Photos are personal information. It seems contradictory to voluntarily put your info out for the world to see, and then be surprised (or creeped out) when someone collates it. That's what this kind of service does. It's not much different than putting your SSN in one place and your Visa number in another, and someone putting the two together.

 

[RoJoHen]

I'm more weirded out that the programs exist at all to do it, not that Facebook is using it.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Yeah, don't we have enough threads bitching about Facebook around here? I think it's far more interesting that facial recognition tech has become so practical it can be casually used by Facebook to tag photos. I think we may not be that far off from Minority Report-style ads, but they'll read your face rather than your eyes to figure out who you are.

Sucks if you are one of a pair of identical twins, and happen to be the "normal" one, getting targeted with ads for all kinds of crazy stuff.

 

[Argus Skyhawk]

Sucks if you are one of a pair of identical twins...

This topic was making me wonder whether Facebook's face recognition software could easily distinguish between identical twins. It might be annoying to twins and their friends if they keep getting mis-tagged.