5 ms·

Facial recognition service becomes a weapon against Russian porn actresses

43 points by georgecmu 11y ago

egjerlow 11y ago
This is the second article in a short while I've seen about this FindFace app: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11491264 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11491264 I am still amazed at how it is possible to match people in the way this app purports to do. Does anyone know of more accessible (to english speakers) code that can do roughly the same?
- jessaustin 11y ago
  Aren't FB and G+ pretty good at labeling people in uploaded pictures? Sure, they're working with a smaller universe and occasionally they need help from the user, but it seems fairly similar to this.
  - egjerlow 11y ago
    You might be right, I hadn't really thought of those, mostly since I've never actually used the photo tag option. I'll experiment a little!
- tyingq 11y ago
  - This is open source, but I have no idea if it's anywhere near the FindFace capability: http://openbiometrics.org/ http://openbiometrics.org/ - Not open source, but it has a demo of face searching (http://www.faceplusplus.com/demo-search/ http://www.faceplusplus.com/demo-search/), and an api.
  - asteadman 11y ago
    I'm not sure how leading edge the openbr stuff is, AFAICT (i'm not a domain expert or even novice), it's pretty primitive. If you were starting from scratch today, i'd say the openface project (https://cmusatyalab.github.io/openface/ https://cmusatyalab.github.io/openface/) is a better starting point. Having a DNN that maps images of faces into a point on a hypersphere seems eminently practical. I'm a bit surprised that it works, but having something like that is awesome.
    - tyingq 11y ago
      This post seems to indicate they aren't that far apart: http://bamos.github.io/2016/01/19/openface-0.2.0/ http://bamos.github.io/2016/01/19/openface-0.2.0/ I am though, in the same boat as you in this domain...not even a novice.
      - asteadman 11y ago
        That post is great! thanks for the link, i hadn't stumbled across it yet. From what I can tell from that link though, it is exactly as I suspected, and openface 0.2 significantly outperforms openbr for the LFW test set. (whereas openfaces 0.1 was largely equivalent). Moreover, I think that there is clearly room for drastic improvement with the openface architecture, either by tweaking the layout of the NN's, or simply throwing more data at it. It is not clear to me how openbr could be improved.
amelius 11y ago
I have this theory that the more beautiful people are, the more likely they are to have a look-alike. So given that these actresses are beautiful, this algorithm will probably generate a lot of false-positives.
- amelius 11y ago
  The theory is actually quite intuitive, and you can apply it, for example, to flowers. The chances of finding two flowers that look the same are much higher if the flowers are beautiful than if they are not.
devereaux 11y ago
”Dvach” (2chan) launched a campaign to deanonymize actresses who appear in pornography. After identifying these women with FindFace, Dvach users shared archived copies of their Vkontakte pages and spammed the women’s families and friends with messages informing them about the discovery. (...) The Internet users behind the doxing campaign say their motivation is moral outrage, claiming that women in the sex industry are “corrupt and deceptive.” Personally, I find these persons behind the doxing campaign much more corrupt and deceptive.
- disremembered 11y ago
  Seriously, that group is driven by hatred and misunderstanding. They are effectively trolls, poisoning the well for those with legitimate privacy concerns.
- PascalsMugger 11y ago
  Absolutely, but this incident is the perfect example of how new technology will always be used by assholes to do asshole things, along with whatever good uses it was designed for. We should always ask "what would 4chan do with this capability?" when inventing new things.
disremembered 11y ago
Facial recognition is here, alongside pervasive surveillance. Voice and gait recognition probably aren't too far behind. > "“In theory,” Tsvetkov told RuNet Echo, "this service could be used by a serial killer or a collector trying to hunt down a debtor.” If anything, this technology will make serial killers easier to catch, right?
- maxerickson 11y ago
  Or prosecute an entire mob. I wonder how long until you can be arrested for having a mask on in public.
- jessaustin 11y ago
  As seen on HN again today [0], everything that law enforcement touches, turns to shit. They will take a perfect "gait recognition" system and within a month they'll decide it's too conservative and start dialing back the match parameters until they get a list of twenty suspects every time they use the system. Then whomever among that unfortunate list is least able to prove an alibi (i.e. the poorest person) will go directly to prison. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11578240 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11578240
jbob2000 11y ago
Facial recognition has all sorts of problems, but I think it's funny that the first problem we have with it is related to sex. Like, we have all this great technology, but at the end of the day, we're still a bunch of hairless monkeys (or ugly-bags-of-water, if you're into obscure references).
- disremembered 11y ago
  It is funny how many technologies are introduced the mass market by relating to sex. As smart as we might be, survival and reproduction are still core genetic imperatives.
  - hartpuff 11y ago
    > It is funny how many technologies are introduced the mass market by relating to sex. This kind of claim is often made (often by smut mongers), but I don't remember (though may have forgotten) ever seeing any examples that really back up the claim. Can you list some?
    - tmptmp 11y ago
      >>This kind of claim is often made (often by smut mongers), but I don't remember (though may have forgotten) ever seeing any examples that really back up the claim. Can you list some? Let me try: Not just technologies, even religions have used sex to sell themselves. Take the kind of things that are sold (in terms of unsubstantiated guarantees of carnal pleasures in heaven after death if you follow the code of conduct proscribed by God(s) via his appointed messengers) you will see that a very large part of this promise is some kind of abundant sex (akin to unlimited download/upload). See for example this sales pitch. [1] [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdzusekB8cg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdzusekB8cg
      - hartpuff 11y ago
        Thanks for your reply. That's an argument about 'sex sells' though. Like car exhibitions or Microsoft Xbox conventions using scantily clad women. What I meant (and I think the parent of my post was talking about, though I could be wrong) is the old chestnut that the sex/adult industry innovated or popularized all kinds of technologies.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

43 points by georgecmu 11y ago

This is the second article in a short while I've seen about this FindFace app: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11491264 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11491264 I am still amazed at how it is possible to match people in the way this app purports to do. Does anyone know of more accessible (to english speakers) code that can do roughly the same?

jessaustin 11y ago
Aren't FB and G+ pretty good at labeling people in uploaded pictures? Sure, they're working with a smaller universe and occasionally they need help from the user, but it seems fairly similar to this.
- egjerlow 11y ago
  You might be right, I hadn't really thought of those, mostly since I've never actually used the photo tag option. I'll experiment a little!
tyingq 11y ago
- This is open source, but I have no idea if it's anywhere near the FindFace capability: http://openbiometrics.org/ http://openbiometrics.org/ - Not open source, but it has a demo of face searching (http://www.faceplusplus.com/demo-search/ http://www.faceplusplus.com/demo-search/), and an api.
- asteadman 11y ago
  I'm not sure how leading edge the openbr stuff is, AFAICT (i'm not a domain expert or even novice), it's pretty primitive. If you were starting from scratch today, i'd say the openface project (https://cmusatyalab.github.io/openface/ https://cmusatyalab.github.io/openface/) is a better starting point. Having a DNN that maps images of faces into a point on a hypersphere seems eminently practical. I'm a bit surprised that it works, but having something like that is awesome.
  - tyingq 11y ago
    This post seems to indicate they aren't that far apart: http://bamos.github.io/2016/01/19/openface-0.2.0/ http://bamos.github.io/2016/01/19/openface-0.2.0/ I am though, in the same boat as you in this domain...not even a novice.
    - asteadman 11y ago
      That post is great! thanks for the link, i hadn't stumbled across it yet. From what I can tell from that link though, it is exactly as I suspected, and openface 0.2 significantly outperforms openbr for the LFW test set. (whereas openfaces 0.1 was largely equivalent). Moreover, I think that there is clearly room for drastic improvement with the openface architecture, either by tweaking the layout of the NN's, or simply throwing more data at it. It is not clear to me how openbr could be improved.

amelius 11y ago

I have this theory that the more beautiful people are, the more likely they are to have a look-alike. So given that these actresses are beautiful, this algorithm will probably generate a lot of false-positives.

amelius 11y ago
The theory is actually quite intuitive, and you can apply it, for example, to flowers. The chances of finding two flowers that look the same are much higher if the flowers are beautiful than if they are not.

devereaux 11y ago

”Dvach” (2chan) launched a campaign to deanonymize actresses who appear in pornography. After identifying these women with FindFace, Dvach users shared archived copies of their Vkontakte pages and spammed the women’s families and friends with messages informing them about the discovery. (...) The Internet users behind the doxing campaign say their motivation is moral outrage, claiming that women in the sex industry are “corrupt and deceptive.” Personally, I find these persons behind the doxing campaign much more corrupt and deceptive.

disremembered 11y ago
Seriously, that group is driven by hatred and misunderstanding. They are effectively trolls, poisoning the well for those with legitimate privacy concerns.
PascalsMugger 11y ago
Absolutely, but this incident is the perfect example of how new technology will always be used by assholes to do asshole things, along with whatever good uses it was designed for. We should always ask "what would 4chan do with this capability?" when inventing new things.

disremembered 11y ago

Facial recognition is here, alongside pervasive surveillance. Voice and gait recognition probably aren't too far behind. > "“In theory,” Tsvetkov told RuNet Echo, "this service could be used by a serial killer or a collector trying to hunt down a debtor.” If anything, this technology will make serial killers easier to catch, right?

maxerickson 11y ago
Or prosecute an entire mob. I wonder how long until you can be arrested for having a mask on in public.
jessaustin 11y ago
As seen on HN again today [0], everything that law enforcement touches, turns to shit. They will take a perfect "gait recognition" system and within a month they'll decide it's too conservative and start dialing back the match parameters until they get a list of twenty suspects every time they use the system. Then whomever among that unfortunate list is least able to prove an alibi (i.e. the poorest person) will go directly to prison. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11578240 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11578240

jbob2000 11y ago

Facial recognition has all sorts of problems, but I think it's funny that the first problem we have with it is related to sex. Like, we have all this great technology, but at the end of the day, we're still a bunch of hairless monkeys (or ugly-bags-of-water, if you're into obscure references).

disremembered 11y ago
It is funny how many technologies are introduced the mass market by relating to sex. As smart as we might be, survival and reproduction are still core genetic imperatives.
- hartpuff 11y ago
  > It is funny how many technologies are introduced the mass market by relating to sex. This kind of claim is often made (often by smut mongers), but I don't remember (though may have forgotten) ever seeing any examples that really back up the claim. Can you list some?
  - tmptmp 11y ago
    >>This kind of claim is often made (often by smut mongers), but I don't remember (though may have forgotten) ever seeing any examples that really back up the claim. Can you list some? Let me try: Not just technologies, even religions have used sex to sell themselves. Take the kind of things that are sold (in terms of unsubstantiated guarantees of carnal pleasures in heaven after death if you follow the code of conduct proscribed by God(s) via his appointed messengers) you will see that a very large part of this promise is some kind of abundant sex (akin to unlimited download/upload). See for example this sales pitch. [1] [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdzusekB8cg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdzusekB8cg
    - hartpuff 11y ago
      Thanks for your reply. That's an argument about 'sex sells' though. Like car exhibitions or Microsoft Xbox conventions using scantily clad women. What I meant (and I think the parent of my post was talking about, though I could be wrong) is the old chestnut that the sex/adult industry innovated or popularized all kinds of technologies.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]