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While this demonstrates the capabilities of easily accessible ML software, it also shows the power held by large corporations and governments who have bulk acce

While this demonstrates the capabilities of easily accessible ML software, it also shows the power held by large corporations and governments who have bulk access to this kind of data (images from social media, crawling) and how ML makes them able to abuse it. It's really scary to think they know where and when I was photographed or filmed in public (doing whatever) by random people while I don't...

chmod775 7y ago
This specifically shows that you don't need to be a large corp to do this. Everyone can do this at home today and on a budget, with publicly accessible data.
- lazyjones 7y ago
  As an individual, you have to try your luck with collections of images that happen to be publicly accessible, whereas large entities have access to many, many more images (all private collections in the cloud for example, or security camera material) and can search them systematically. That's a big difference IMHO.
  - dontreact 7y ago
    At the moment (as someone who works at a large company), it honestly seems easier to scrape->do something sketchy with the data than it would be to overcome the internal privacy protections that are in place at a large company.
    - tbyehl 7y ago
      Not all large companies are alike. https://threatpost.com/facebook-to-pay-550m-to-settle-class-action-case-over-facial-recognition/152374/ https://threatpost.com/facebook-to-pay-550m-to-settle-class-...
    - lazyjones 7y ago
      Do the internal restrictions apply to everybody at Google (my guess from your past comments) equally, or are there departments with easier access, government contracts etc.?
      - dontreact 7y ago
        I can’t speak for all of Google (maybe there is something secret I don’t know about, although I doubt it given how much leaking there has been), but for the sensitive data I have had to deal with for my job, I’m not aware of anyone having a way of bypassing the controls.
- hedora 7y ago
  It’s not easy to obtain a database of all the publicly available photos of yourself. The concern is that organizations with modest resources can generate a better picture of individuals’ public footprints than the individuals can.
pacala 7y ago
These days, your public life is under continuous corporate surveillance. You may have not noticed, but entire cities are under 24/7 video surveillance. https://ring.com https://ring.com You may have not noticed, but the ubiquitous mobile phone is morphing into a 24/7 surveillance radar. https://atap.google.com/soli https://atap.google.com/soli

chmod775 7y ago

This specifically shows that you don't need to be a large corp to do this. Everyone can do this at home today and on a budget, with publicly accessible data.

lazyjones 7y ago
As an individual, you have to try your luck with collections of images that happen to be publicly accessible, whereas large entities have access to many, many more images (all private collections in the cloud for example, or security camera material) and can search them systematically. That's a big difference IMHO.
- dontreact 7y ago
  At the moment (as someone who works at a large company), it honestly seems easier to scrape->do something sketchy with the data than it would be to overcome the internal privacy protections that are in place at a large company.
  - tbyehl 7y ago
    Not all large companies are alike. https://threatpost.com/facebook-to-pay-550m-to-settle-class-action-case-over-facial-recognition/152374/ https://threatpost.com/facebook-to-pay-550m-to-settle-class-...
  - lazyjones 7y ago
    Do the internal restrictions apply to everybody at Google (my guess from your past comments) equally, or are there departments with easier access, government contracts etc.?
    - dontreact 7y ago
      I can’t speak for all of Google (maybe there is something secret I don’t know about, although I doubt it given how much leaking there has been), but for the sensitive data I have had to deal with for my job, I’m not aware of anyone having a way of bypassing the controls.
hedora 7y ago
It’s not easy to obtain a database of all the publicly available photos of yourself. The concern is that organizations with modest resources can generate a better picture of individuals’ public footprints than the individuals can.

pacala 7y ago

These days, your public life is under continuous corporate surveillance. You may have not noticed, but entire cities are under 24/7 video surveillance. https://ring.com https://ring.com You may have not noticed, but the ubiquitous mobile phone is morphing into a 24/7 surveillance radar. https://atap.google.com/soli https://atap.google.com/soli