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[Shaolin]

http://www.heinz.cmu.edu/%7Eacquisti/face-recognition-study-FAQ/

General questions
Q. What is this research about?

We studied the consequences and implications of the convergence of three technologies: face recognition, cloud computing, and online social networks. Specifically, we investigated whether the combination of publicly available Web 2.0 data and off-the-shelf face recognition software may allow large-scale, automated, end-user individual re-identification. We identified strangers online (across different online services: Experiment 1), offline (in the physical world: Experiment 2), and then inferred additional, sensitive information about them, combining face recognition and data mining, thus blending together online and offline data (Experiment 3). Finally, we developed a mobile phone application to demonstrate the ability to recognize and then predict someone's sensitive personal data directly from their face in real time.

Q. What were the results of Experiment 1?
Experiment 1 was about online-to-online re-identification. We took unidentified profile photos from a popular dating site (where people use pseudonyms to protect privacy), compared them - using face recognition - to identified photos from social networking sites (namely, we used what of a Facebook profile can be publicly accessed via a search engine; we did not even log on to the network itself), and ended up re-identifying a statistically significant proportion of members of the dating site.

Q. What were the results of Experiment 2?
Experiment 2 was about offline-to-online re-identification. It was conceptually similar to Experiment 1, but we focused on re-identifying students on the campus of a North American college. We took images of them with a webcam and then compared those shots to images from Facebook profiles. Using this approach, we re-identified about one third of the subjects in the experiment.

Q. What were the results of Experiment 3, and how do they relate to "Augmented Reality"?
We use the term augmented reality in a slightly extended sense, to refer to the merging of online and offline data that new technologies make possible. If an individual's face in the street can be identified using a face recognizer and identified images from social network sites such as Facebook or LinkedIn, then it becomes possible not just to identify that individual, but also to infer additional, and more sensitive, information about her, once her name has been (probabilistically) inferred. In our third experiment, as a proof-of-concept, we predicted the interests and Social Security numbers of some of the participants in the second experiment. We did so by combining face recognition with the algorithms we developed in 2009 to predict SSNs from public data. SSNs were nothing more than one example of what is possible to predict about a person: conceptually, the goal of Experiment 3 was to show that it is possible to start from an anonymous face in the street, and end up with very sensitive information about that person, in a process of data "accretion." In the context of our experiment, it is this blending of online and offline data - made possible by the convergence of face recognition, social networks, data mining, and cloud computing - that we refer to as augmented reality.

Q. Are these results scalable?
The capabilities of automated face recognition *today* are still limited - but keep improving. Although our studies were completed in the "wild" (that is, with real social networks profiles data, and webcam shots taken in public, and so forth), they are nevertheless the output of a controlled (set of) experiment(s). The results of a controlled experiment do not necessarily translate to reality with the same level of accuracy. However, considering the technological trends in cloud computing, face recognition accuracy, and online self-disclosures, it is hard not to conclude that what today we presented as a proof-of-concept in our study, tomorrow may become as common as everyday's text-based search engine queries.

Q. What are the implications of this study?
Our study is less about face recognition and more about privacy concerns raised by the convergence of various technologies. There is no obvious answer and solution to the privacy concerns raised by widely available face recognition and identified (or identifiable) facial images. Google's Eric Schmidt observed that, in the future, young individuals may be entitled to change their names to disown youthful improprieties. It is much harder, however, to change someone's face. Other than adapting to a world where every stranger in the street could predict quite accurately sensitive information about you (such as your SSN, but also your credit score, or sexual orientation), we need to think about policy solutions that can balance the benefits and risks of peer-based face recognition. Self-regulation, or opt-in mechanisms, are not going to work, since the results we presented are based on publicly available information.

Q. Face recognition has been around for a long while, and Web 2.0 companies have deployed it in their tools/applications. What is new about this study?
Indeed, in recent times, Google has acquired Neven Vision, Riya, and PittPatt and deployed face recognition into Picasa. Apple has acquired Polar Rose, and deployed face recognition into iPhoto. Facebook has licensed Face.com to enable automated tagging. So far, however, these end-user Web 2.0 applications are limited in scope: They are constrained by, and within, the boundaries of the service in which they are deployed. Our focus, however, was on examining whether the convergence of publicly available Web 2.0 data, cheap cloud computing, data mining, and off-the-shelf face recognition is bringing us closer to a world where anyone may run face recognition on anyone else, online and offline - and then infer additional, sensitive data about the target subject, starting merely from one anonymous piece of information about her: the face.

 

[ommani]

i agree with endlessness and house

check this out...very awesome

[YOUTUBE]

like

just noticed that I have three windows open: gmail, facebook, and nexus...

I have a love/hate relationship to facebook, which I'm sure is true for a lot of people.

 

[RayOfLight]

Facebook is a tool used for social networking, a very good tool imo. I've met people on facebook that later became good friends of mine.

I think its a shame that people hate it so much and I really think they don't understand how it can be used in a positive way. Your facebook doesn't have to be about projecting a perfect life for everyone to see ( although I'll admit it gets used for that purpose a lot ) It can be used to spread positive messages and uplifting material as well or to expose government corruption and alternative media between like minded people.

Didn't the occupy wall street movement start on facebook?
The government spies on people with facebook, so what? there are probably supercomputers that listen to every phone call you make as well, x-ray vision satellites that can see right into your house!

My point is your privacy is already compromised with a government in possession of technology we cant even dream of at this point.

 

[a1pha]

So -

I am an early adopter when it comes to technology - Facebook being one. I joined back when it required a .edu from only a handful of universities. At that time, it was really cool. Dorm friends and classmates linked together to share notes and discuss topics. Thankfully, incoming freshman received a lecture on keeping your Facebook 'clean' and the understanding that anything you put into the Internet stays on the Internet forever.

Fast forward a few years.

Anyone can join.
Heck - there are profiles for pets! Argg!
Add the privacy concerns,
spamming,
lack of any meaningful conversation.

It's time to go. So, I started the process.

Criticism of Facebook
Facebook's Privacy Issues Are Even Deeper Than We Knew

*****

Facebook does NOT allow you to delete you account - and they do NOT respond to written requests. They only allow you to 'suspend' your account - which means nothing. The minute you log in again (and you probably will one night) - your account is back to normal. NOTHING IS REMOVED.

The only way is manually.

Download all your data
FB allows you a complete 'dump' of your data. To do this, go to

Account Settings > General > at the bottom, "Download a copy of your Facebook data." > give it a few hours to process

Once you have your data, you'll begin the process of manually deleting your FB life.

Remove personal information
Account Settings > General >

Remove all networks
Remove linked accounts
Remove ALL information

Remove albums
Go to Albums > select album > delete album

Remove friends
This is tedious work. You must do it one by one. Start with the people you know the least. Then to those you kinda know. Then to your best of friends. It’s tough. Just do it.

*****

Double check. Are all photos gone? All information erased? Zero friends?

You are FREE!!

+-

 

[Infinite I]

Funny this thread popped up again, I succumbed to pressure and got one, really got it to contact a friend who Ive not seen in years. I don't have any pics or any personal info and its handy to network and find out what gigs are happening in my area. I might be getting to DJ at some places because of it. My ex girlfriend tracked me down which kinda freaked me out, used my main email address like an idiot, I have no interest in speaking to people I hardly know, or even people I know well on it, I have a phone id rather use that! but for me keeping in touch with the local underground music scene has been pretty nifty, discovered a whole plethora of free partys and underground club nights!

 

[biopsylo]

Facebook is a tool used for social networking, a very good tool imo. I've met people on facebook that later became good friends of mine.

I think its a shame that people hate it so much and I really think they don't understand how it can be used in a positive way. Your facebook doesn't have to be about projecting a perfect life for everyone to see ( although I'll admit it gets used for that purpose a lot ) It can be used to spread positive messages and uplifting material as well or to expose government corruption and alternative media between like minded people.

Didn't the occupy wall street movement start on facebook?
The government spies on people with facebook, so what? there are probably supercomputers that listen to every phone call you make as well, x-ray vision satellites that can see right into your house!

My point is your privacy is already compromised with a government in possession of technology we cant even dream of at this point.

^^yup, except we can always dream:wink:

just like the internet itself is full of spam, one must navigate wisely, to avoid getting sidetracked and sucked into the abyss. facebook may suck big time in some respects, but it can bring people together like never before--(good or bad).

dont be paranoid. and dont post incriminating things. facebook is a tool.

i heard rumor at a occupy protest that facebook was recently bought by some banking firm or something. if thats true, then another, better and more advanced and underground site will emerge, just like facebook basically replaced myspace.

 

[DMTripper]

I use facebook a lot. I don't give them any information I don't want them to access and I don't use any of the apps. Just use it to communicate with friends and family and share links and photos. I think it's a brilliant tool for that.

 

[MelCat]

I think that Tool should have been added to the list to vote on.

I use it as a tool to raise awareness and to connect with others with the intention of raising awareness. It's also the main way I keep in contact with friends since we now live so far away from each other.

Be aware of what you post and don't incriminate yourself on there.

 

[Ice House]

I'm on it from time to time, less now than when I first got on it. I use it as my, LOL, cover story.

I dont put anything on there that I dont want the world to know.

I do see the ugliness in it.

oh well......

 

[dreamer042]

I use Facebook, it keeps me up to date on a lot of important things happening in my community. I spend far more time on the nexus...

I for one am about ready to watch Google Plus eat Facebook the way Facebook ate Myspace. It seems it's no longer in the beta phase and is open to the public now. Sure it has pretty much all the same privacy concerns as Facebook and at the moment it sees little to no action since everyone is still using Facebook but it is set up much better than Facebook IMO and it does have the potential to take over.

I remember all that talk a few months back about anonymous killing Facebook on November 5 and launching their own social network that doesn't invade your privacy, that would be very nice to see, but since that doesn't look very likely, until someone else builds a better social network I'll grudgingly keep using Facebook and promoting Google + as a better alternative.

Thanks for taking the time to read my $0.02 worth of opinion in the matter.

♥

 

[universecannon]

it definitely has its positive uses, but for me personally the bad outweighs the good is all

 

[jdubs]

(Bump)

I don't see the issue so clearly--- I have a lot of friends in far-off places with whom I would like to keep the option of contact open with, and facebook is a very reliable way to do that. Emails and phone numbers change with the wind, but you can always get in touch with someone via their facebook account (if they have one).

I use it as a tool to raise awareness and to connect with others with the intention of raising awareness. It's also the main way I keep in contact with friends since we now live so far away from each other.

I use it somewhat begrudgingly. It is starting to appear more Orwellian by the day. Now people check in where they are! What is this, global tracking?

Also, I really don't understand why people feel the need to post 'One child is killed every minute blah blah blah blah Repost this if you love your kids.'

You love your kids?! :shock:

Surely not...

 

[slayerbizkit]

I liked it at first because I was curious to see what all my best friends from grade school back home are doing, but that quickly backfired. Every time I went somewhere new, FB would narc out my position if I made a status update and everyone would see. If I put up a pic of me doing something interesting by myself just for the sake of exploring, someone back at home would cry about why I didn't invite them, message them on facebook, buy them a souvenir, etc. I don't do illegal stuff and really have nothing to hide from the law, but FB just has too many privacy pitfalls that are ticking time bombs waiting to asplode on one's private social life.

 

[RebornInSmoke]

i didnt choose a poll choice as i dont consider it a "friend" nor an "enemy". its just a website.
i dont really give enough of a crap about it to be caught up emotionally and call it "my enemy". if there are people here who genuinely consider it as an enemy of theirs, no offence but you really need to get out more...

but i get what this is about.
personally for me i find the whole thing ridiculous.
people posting stupid pointless updates about their daily activities that nobody really cares about ("just popping down the shops!"),
pissy arguments in public comments viewable by everyone, stupid drama etc..
sack that pish.

on the flipside it IS great for keeping yourself updated on artists, musicians, companies, events, etc that you like.
ive never been one of these fannies who has 20000 "friends", and thinks it actually means something.
i think the most "friends" ive ever had on facebook was around 40 or so.
about 20 people i genuinely knew and spoke to in real life, and 20 were artists, musicians, magazines, companies (ie clothing, glasswork, pipes n bongs, crafts, whatever).

i deleted my "fb" about 3 times. all permanent deletes. after the last one (which was almost 2 years ago) ive not looked back. i dont need it in my life at all, its just a load of crap that in my opinion too many people get sucked into far too easily.
there have been psychological studies done on it and its users. the conclusion?
people who are on it everyday and actively use it, having updates on their smartphones as they happen etc, most of the time grow narcissistic and vain.
look it up if you dont believe me.

i feel that many people use it to fill a void in their life. a void they want filled with real social interaction, (even if they are social, they maybe dont have many deep connections, who knows?), filled with a sense of belonging to something, of being involved with something...




then again i could be totally off

these are just my musings....

PS- for those who want to turn off the location "sign me in" update thing, you can.
google it. its in your privacy and account settings somewhere.
as well as that facebook doesnt want you to easily permanently delete your facebook account.
to do so you need to go through the help section and search for "delete my account" and it takes you to the bit for it. after you confirm the delete, you have 14 days to change your mind. if you sign back in within those 14 days then your deletion request will be undone.
as well as this, ANY photo that or piece of information or text that you upload/post, EVEN if you permanently delete/remove your profile and account, remains on their servers and databases, FOREVER.

thats right. uploaded a photo of you and your friends smoking crack at the christmas work party? that wasnt smart- best take it down before the boss sees..
oh but whats this? mark zuckerberg and his buddies still keep that photo for themselves, to do what they wish with it? hmmm...

also i find it strange that it has connections to the DoD (US govt. dept. of defense)...
the rabbit hole goes deep 8)

 

[flouro]

Media medium... media is the message? Have not read much of Marshall McLuhan but kind of interesting idea of how facebook is using that sentence. EDIT: What is the Meaning of The Medium is the Message? now that I think about it... nah, too much too faast too soon... well... Where did go the long emails and letters people wrote that had the good stuff in them. Found this recently: http://diasporaproject.org/

Does it have to go all like this, do I not anymore have anything more than condensed information in my brain unable to express myself with anything more than lolz and :surprised

::think

The age of cybernetic implants and open source tech would probably make an interesting OpenSite having experimental groups with for example rules of sharing everything from the body operations onwards and maybe making it a huge cloud with interesting options of being able to do stuff. Think about the social experiments we could be doing with this? Now why did people think of a crappy solution like facebook, as a tool it sucks, can you modify it to suit your needs?

 

[Guyomech]

As a lifelong reader of science fiction, I always assumed that we were headed toward a ubiquitous data culture, where everyone's every move was tracked. Interesting that it has happened through a social network that people join voluntarily- great way to get around human rights issues.

As far as government tracking goes, that's only part of the picture. Just as insidious is corporate data mining- we now each have dossiers with multiple corporations, who are building profiles of our buying, traveling and consumption habits in order to be able to target us more and more surgically with advertising messages. This strikes me as being invasive.

I have a FB presence that is managed by our online store admin guy. I personally don't go there, so it contains no sensitive personal information. But I live under the assumption that my privacy, along with everyone else's, has already been compromised and that's just a fact of life.

These days it's become almost essential to be involved in FB if you run a small business and want to communicate with potential clients. There are many members of "Facebook nation" who really don't venture outside of FB... If all you have is a regular old website, they wont bother going there because a FB page is continually changing, while a website is far more likely to be static.

I personally think its important not to get caught up in only one way of thinking or doing things... If you're not careful, all the major details of your life will be things that were recommended to you by algorithms.

 

[Korey]

Facebook can be safely used as long as the user doesn't upload any information they would not and should not share with strangers. Don't want facebook to be able to access any of your private information? Don't share it.

Is it a matter of truly being afraid of using facebook, or losing self control with facebook?

Perhaps the matter is your ego is obsessed with matching your philosophy. One must not buy fast food, or they are contributing to evil. One must not take part in any social activity that is as popular as facebook, or you are contributing to evil. One must not take part in any mainstream realms of society, or you are untrue to yourself and allowing society to pull the strings for you. One must continue to lie to themselves to make themselves happy.

Just a thought