Germany Tells Facebook To Destroy Face Recognition Database
from the no-innovation-allowed dept
I've already noted that I don't understand the fuss over Facebook's facial recognition feature -- but plenty of people (including many of you) completely disagree. And, so do regulators in Germany, apparently. As they've suddenly re-opened their investigation of the feature (jumping on the bandwagon with Ireland and Norway) and told Facebook that it needs to destroy its database of faces collected in Germany, and change the system so that people have to opt-in, rather than opt-out.Of course, I'm still wondering how this is different than existing tagged images. If my friend Joe "tags" me in an image, then Facebook already has that info. Is it that different if Facebook's system tagged me or if Joe tags me? Should Joe have to first get permission from me to identify me in a photo? That seems like a stretch.
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Filed Under: face recognition, germany, privacy
Companies: facebook
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If this technique continues then I could end up with a bunch of stalkers who find out who I am, where I live, where I work, simply by taking a picture of me.
But having to destroy that database? That's over the top. It should stay, but each facebook member must give permission first before she can be tagged. (Yes, opt-in instead of opt-out.)
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The biggest drawback of Facebook isn't what I decide to put online about me. It's what others put online about me.
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True, and in isolation no big deal, but for me, the facial recognition was pretty much the final straw that got me to delete my FB account.
It was just getting to be too much of a burden to constantly have to defend myself against FB.
But I think my response (leave Facebook) was the correct one, and Germany's response is over the top.
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Same point as before
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You are a person with privacy rights.
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Huh???
I'm not sure how you can ask this question with a straight face.
Of course it's different if a human who knows you tags you in a photo vs an automated system. The human who is tagging you is doing it for a specific reason, it's a social behavior between acquaintances/friends. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with the automated system doing it as well, but there is definitely a huge difference.
Suffice to say that there are some groups of friends that don't tag photos because they don't need to, as in everyone in the group knows each other. There may be many cases out there where people simply don't want to be tagged automatically in a photo.
It may be that this is a generational divide.
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Actually...
At least one dutch political party supports this, not sure which it was though.
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Need more control
Whatever, I think terrorists having access to streetview is a bigger issue.
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What if
And yes, things like that do happen. Job experts are telling us to be real careful with photos and all, and that's not for naught.
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And yes, things like that do happen. Job experts are telling us to be real careful with photos and all, and that's not for naught.
Again, how is that different than if that same friend tags you directly?
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Let's say your friend tags you sitting at dinner with your parents... nice shot, right? A couple of weeks later, you guys sneak out the the night club for a wild time with stripper twins you met, and your friend says "Don't take any pictures of me", so you are careful to avoid him. Sadly, in a single image, he is in the background getting his head slapped by stripper titties.
Automated system tags the image, and everyone suddenly knows that he was there, automatically pushed out as an update for everyone to enjoy. How nice!
If you cannot understand why an automated system is bad, just go back and consider your objections to the various "infringement bots" that are out there. Are you suggesting that automated is actually okay?
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I imagine facial recognition software would struggle with that scenario...
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Tagging is bad enough for people, but facial recognition is a whole different ballgame.
Facial recognition is dangerous for everyone.
With the rise of cctv everywhere, you will be constantly followed, STALKED by whoever has access.
Facebook using this tech will only cause problems for peoples privacy.
It has no valid use except for "law" enforcement.
We all know that the people in power never misuse the law as a tool to get/maintain power and control.
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Perhaps..
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If you don't like being tagged...
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Facebook is so ubiquitous at this point that simply not joining is inadequate protection against privacy breeches of various sorts. User stupidity cannot be routed around.
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I'd say that I'd keep in touch with my friends via email, but they're all such Facebook addicts that my emails get ignored for days, even weeks at times, while they share the minutia of their lives on an hourly basis.
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I believe, I may be dumb!
If so, where the fuck is my opt out!
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I was under the impression that it was just tagging so that there was a nice caption under the picture saying the names of the people in them.
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As for the caption, yes you can tag people in your comments just by typing their names (again optional). The caption is just a commentary really. Sort of like a "Me and Joe Schmo were here having a good relaxing time in the sun" kind of thing.
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On socialism if you are responsible for your neighbor then your neighbor has a lean on the products of your labor which for most people represents a uninvited liability. The only different between that demand on your labor and chattel slavery is that in chattel slavery you would receive your subsistence directly from the person who commands your labor while in the present form you receiv your subsistance directly from the government an organization of slave masters.
On that take tracking is nothing more than electronic chains which have the same function as real chains nothing but a means of forcing people to provide the required commanded level of involuntary work.
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You fucking buffoon.
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Let’s Nationalize Facebook
Only then will the social network protect users’ rights and share valuable data with researchers.
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2012/08/facebook_should_be_nat ionalized_to_protect_user_rights_.html?wpisrc=slate_river
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Would Facebook be prevented from “serving authoritarian interests”? Tell that to the activist/whistleblower who has been driven into the arms of Ecuador, of all countries, because he fears extradition to the United States.
Public utility regulation of social media has already been made mincemeat. Nationalizing Facebook is indeed a nonstarter."
from http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/yes-nationalizing-facebook-is-a-nonstarter/
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I agree with Germany
One or two of those people that you don't know may commit a crime and during the course of the investigation all of the social media sites that they subscribe to will be looked at and if your picture pops up on the account then you will become a "person of interest" even though you don't know the person or their friends.
You have not committed a crime but you may wind up getting yourself a lawyer and losing time from work.
Guilt by association may get you some jail time.
Zuckerberg thinks that everyone should share everything.
He doesn't have a clue what the real world is like.
Google does the same thing and I have tried to opt out of all their crap and so far I'm still opted in
The only way to really protect yourself is to not leave the house!
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In agreement with you: Many of Germany's laws suck and don't deal in reality.
In disagreement with you: This is still a matter of scale. Human identifying me through photo much less problematic than computer identifying me through photo on Facebook.
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A human is going to tag you in the photos they took of you or the photos they were in with you. The automated system can tag every photo of you regardless of source, even if you're not the primary subject of the photo and are what would normally be a nameless face in the background of some stranger's photo? Seems like a pretty big difference in terms of systemic identification to me. Regardless of if the system actually does so publicly it's certainly capable of doing so and revealing that information to whoever Facebook wishes, starting with their own people, or are ordered too reveal it to...
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Any work performed by the user for Facebook has to be agreed by the worker, so it's only natural that if some work can be done without my permission granted every time separately, noone has a right to assume I granted such permission en masse.
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people shouldn't be able to tag you in a photo at all
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Because of pirvacy in your coutrie?
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People shouldn't be allowed to identify a particular person and hyperlink to an associated webpage which is about this person.
That will definitely, 100% not break the internet. Good idea.
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are germans that ugly
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Here is how it is different
On the other hand, if facebook maintains a facial recognition database of all its users and their photos, it CAN build orders of magnitude more connections between names, faces, and events. Publicly it might only let users who are connected make use of that feature, but privately it can and likely will eventually connect everyone it possibly can. Whether that is done for its own financial benefit or on behalf of a government agency doesn't matter. The huge database would be instantly searchable, internally, with any photo - or portion of a photo.
Think about that. If 10,000 people join a peaceful protest rally then their own uploaded photos, along with shared media photos, would be used automatically to identify many or all participants. With a little data mining you have a handy dandy database of everyone there, where they were and when, and who they were near or with, and what they may have said or done.
Can you imagine ANY law enforcement agency in ANY country not taking advantage of that. Can you imagine ANY of these agencies, or individuals within them, not using this data and ability illegally or to label, monitor, and/or persecute those who hold views they don't understand or find agreeable?
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Should Joe have to first get permission from me to identify me in a photo?
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No difference
In my book, no. I get just as upset at friends tagging me without permission. It's a huge privacy issue, AFAIC, and until such time as FB offers the same privacy protections as the real world, I will continue to use FB only pseudonymously, via FB accounts that I have stuffed full of fake info.
To folk who say, "But you're missing the whole point of Facebook," I say, "No, YOU'RE missing the whole point of Facebook."
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