Skip to main content

Study shows face recognition technology can reveal much more than your image

face recognition - human qr code Face recognition software has been available for awhile, but we’ve only seen it implemented into consumer-level products recently. Facebook rolled out its automatic photo-tagging service earlier this year, which continues to concern users to varying degrees, and iOS 5 and Google products are likely to sport applications running face recognition technology.

Reactions have been everything from complete acceptance to shocked outrage. What’s one more piece of information for these platforms? Apple, Google, and Facebook already know everything about us, so why not integrate this data into a useful feature? On the other hand, if a Website that already holds everything about you can also recognize you, does that mean privacy and anonymity are officially dead for Internet users? It also means you could image search for a person with nothing but a photo of them–which has plenty of upsetting implications.

Recommended Videos

But with the slow and minimal product roll outs we’ve seen thus far (and the ability to uninstall them), the scare factor lies mostly around the “could bes” and “what ifs.” That clearly is not the case anymore: Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University said that with nothing but a photo, they could identify strangers, and that part of time these photos coupled with information from Facebook, social security numbers could be partially predicted.

According to a press release, the study was led by associate professor of information technology Alessandro Acquisti. He and his team want to reveal the power of a photo paired with social networks. “In one experiment, Acquisti’s team identified individuals on a popular online dating site where members protect their privacy through pseudonyms. In a second experiment, they identified students walking on campus – based on their profile photos on Facebook. In a third experiment, the research team predicted personal interests and, in some cases, even the Social Security numbers of the students, beginning with only a photo of their faces.”

The study also took the photos of about 90 students, which were then uploaded and compared to hundreds of thousands of Facebook photos from the profiles of students from the same school. In seconds, there were 10 possible matches, and the participants confirmed their images were found more than 30 percent of the time. So while this system isn’t foolproof (yet), it works and could easily be exploited in the wrong hands.

Privacy in the Internet age continues to be a moving target, but this latest step forward could very well mean the end of it for social network users. If you want to have a Facebook, Google+, Twitter, or whatever profile and allow photos to be a part of that, it means you could very well be sacrificing your anonymity. As digital and actual realities continue to merge into one existence, it means that the possibility of going unidentified and being Internet user is less and less likely.

The study also questions what this means for human interaction. Will we default to our social networks and electronic devices to identify and asses a person, or will we rely on personal experiences and instincts? It’s unlikely anything will be able to halt this evolution, so it’s important to consider how our privacy and relationships may be changing –and to try and limit the impact it has by staying as human as possible.

Molly McHugh
Former Social Media/Web Editor
Before coming to Digital Trends, Molly worked as a freelance writer, occasional photographer, and general technical lackey…
Bluesky finally adds a feature many had been waiting for
A blue sky with clouds.

Bluesky has been making a lot of progress in recent months by simplifying the process to sign up while at the same time rolling out a steady stream of new features.

As part of those continuing efforts, the social media app has just announced that users can now send direct messages (DMs).

Read more
Reddit just achieved something for the first time in its 20-year history
The Reddit logo.

Reddit’s on a roll. The social media platform has just turned a profit for the first time in its 20-year history, and now boasts a record 97.2 million daily active users, marking a year-over-year increase of 47%. A few times during the quarter, the figure topped 100 million, which Reddit CEO and co-founder Steve Huffman said in a letter to shareholders had been a “long-standing milestone” for the site.

The company, which went public in March, announced the news in its third-quarter earnings results on Tuesday.

Read more
Worried about the TikTok ban? This is how it might look on your phone
TikTok splash screen on an Android phone.

The US Supreme Court has decided to uphold a law that would see TikTok banned in the country on January 19. Now, the platform has issued an official statement, confirming that it will indeed shut down unless it gets some emergency relief from the outgoing president.

“Unless the Biden Administration immediately provides a definitive statement to satisfy the most critical service providers assuring non-enforcement, unfortunately TikTok will be forced to go dark on January 19,” said the company soon after the court’s verdict.
So, what does going dark mean?
So, far, there is no official statement on what exactly TikTok means by “going dark.” There is a lot of speculation out there on how exactly the app or website will look once TikTok shutters in the US.

Read more