Comments on: No more checking in: why public facial recognition may take off

By: CoCreatr

CoCreatr — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 17:14:37 +0000

This just in. RT @KristinMandia Creepy.> AR + facial-recognition Minority Report Style ads in Japan https://bit.ly/biGdot Via @DebWeinstein @sidneyeve

By: Ross Dawson

Ross Dawson — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 15:57:00 +0000

Good to have some contrasting views!
I think perforce we’ll all have to take Simon’s view. There is a kind of pleasure to feel completely unrecognized on the street, for example when we visit new cities, but the fact is we are and always have been visible wherever we go. Step recognition technologies up a notch, and we might as well enjoy it.
I love David Brin’s take on this in The Transparent Society: transparency is inevitable, but it could be either one-way – individuals are seen by institutions – or two-way – people can see back into the institutions with the same degree of transparency.
There absolutely is the risk that this (or any other) power gets abused – one of the reasons I’m cautious about governments gaining powerful (one-way) surveillance technologies is that you never know what that government’s successor will be.
As always, the social response to technologies is more interesting than the technologies themselves. We will soon enough see what happens on this one.

By: Simon Dufour

Simon Dufour — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 05:37:29 +0000

Personally, I don’t understand this obsession for privacy in public places. If I’m in a public place, I can be identified at all time. People can see my face and identify me. Someone else could yell this name and it’d still be in his right. That person could tell anybody that he saw me and nothing could be done.
Why is it any different with facial recognition? The manager of a restaurant have the right to know who’s entering his property. He can even throw you out if he wants. At any time he can know who’s there and if the police call and ask if Mr.X is in the place. What’s the problem?
Why should people care? You fear being spotted by criminals? They don’t care about your name, they just want your money. However, the camera will also get his name. If he wears a mask, then the police will probably already be on its way. The people would benefit from an higher security.
Me, I just don’t care. I’m not important enough for people to stalk me. It seems projects like this are only a problem to people that don’t want to be seen somewhere. That’s shady to me. Why would you hide in the supermarket? Why would you hide in a cinema? Oh, is it because the person will know that you’re not at your house? Yeah well.. my appartment is empty 80% of the time, they actually have more chance to find it empty than anything else.
Seriously. I am getting sick of reasons to stop enforcing speed limits and security in public places. Bring this facial recognition technology. I’ll be the first to accept it. Oh.. and please. Add algorithm to keep me safe, I’ll really appreciate.

By: martin king

martin king — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 02:27:45 +0000

Very exciting but while many look at this as a technology for freedom others will be looking at it as a technology for control – it will be interesting how all this pans out.
How do you think the control – freedom factors will pan out in the future?