9 ms·

I used to think some of my peers were being overly cautious by purposely trying to obfuscate their online profile. Back in the day, I couldn’t care less about p

by 40four 7y ago

I used to think some of my peers were being overly cautious by purposely trying to obfuscate their online profile. Back in the day, I couldn’t care less about putting in effort to try to protect my online privacy. I have slowly but surely come to see the light. Now it’s at the forefront of my mind at all times. Learning about this company (and I imagine other unknown entities are doing the same) has encouraged me to get more aggressive. I think I will start to try some shenanigans I learned from a friend. I plan on replacing my online profile pics to a random grab from https://www.thispersondoesnotexist.com/ https://www.thispersondoesnotexist.com/. Might not make much of a difference for the old stuff, maybe I can successfully request a data deletion as the article suggests. At least it will introduce a little bit of noise to the AI overloads :)

wideasleep1 7y ago
Starting in the early 90's, 'everyone's a dog on the internet', so my profile pics were dogs. One buzzed evening, I changed a few to Fabio. Good luck, Fabio,
- jlgaddis 7y ago
  "I miss the good ole days of the Internet -- back when the men were men, the women were men, and the kids were FBI agents."
david-cako 7y ago
I too am extremely opposed to any and all non-consenting invasions of digital privacy (i.e., the problem isn’t the known-known of what you upload, but the hidden implications of it), but on the contrary, I make a disciplined effort to make my digital fingerprint reflect my actual views and identity. Whatever time capsule my digital identity ends up in, I want to be as accurate and beautiful as possible. This includes my avid support of corporations which make good faith efforts to defend natural rights and freedoms, and my vehement opposition to corporate/political nonsense that does not represent, in good faith, the interests of humanity and nature. “A reasonable amount” of surveillance is an essential aspect of society, but it SHOULD be considered invasive, and should never be invisible. I suspect that there will be BS metrics to evaluate how “consenting” a given individual is to NSA/Clearview type behavior, and I would hope that I am casting a shield of protection. I feel bad about the fact that an element of bitterness is necessary to be resilient. I know no other way than truth. I truly act as if AI is learning from me, and believe that there are long reaching and metaphysical effects to all actions.
- specialist 7y ago
  Thank you for sharing this viewpoint. Your end goals are admirable. I will seriously consider adopting your strategy. Obviously, I'm using a nym. Because I've wanted to my life to be faceted. I've lived very publicly before (ran for office). But in geekdom, I didn't want people to casually correlate my politics (activism) with my open source efforts. Again, thank you.
stiray 7y ago
Replacing pictures wont help (they already have them), GDPR request for deletion might work better but on the other side you also give them your confirmed identity. With companies as shady as this one, they might just set a flag in their database and add your documents data to them. As you have figured out on your own, public should listen to some people warning about this for more than decade instead of making fun from them (tin foil hat,...). And if anyone thinks that google and facebook are not having their own versions of clearview, think again. Any form of online presence under real name has to be minimized and it is doable but this would mean that all personal narcissistic pushes would need to be stopped (or should I say - cured) and refrain yourself from using any personal information (no, you wont secure my account by having my phone number, provide me TOTP if the security is really the reason) on the internet while avoiding it beeing stolen by apps (application firewalls, sending back fake data and not using any google applications including removing their preinstalled spyware by rooting the phone). I can guarantee you that you wont be missing anything relevant (I am doing it for more than decade). But. Will you do that? Can you do that? Do you want to do that? Most people just rather take blue pill.
- lucb1e 7y ago
  > With companies as shady as this one, they might just set a flag in their database and add your documents data to them. This is exactly my fear. If they were more legitimate, I wouldn't be worried about sending an ID card. Thinking if it makes sense to fake an ID with my real picture on it so they can give me the data and 'delete' it but with a fake name to make sure I'm at least not feeding the troll.
- justaguyhere 7y ago
  GDPR request for deletion might work better Dumb question - how can anyone be sure that companies actually delete the data? What about the backups, what happens to the data there? How do these govt enforcers verify this? Also, what about Clearview's employees abusing the data? what stops them from snooping on someone they are interested in?
  - lonelappde 7y ago
JDulin 7y ago
Just for the record, the journalist who broke the story on Clearview noted that Clearview AI has specifically demonstrated it isn't fooled by thispersondoesnotexist.com: https://twitter.com/kashhill/status/1218542846694871040?s=20 https://twitter.com/kashhill/status/1218542846694871040?s=20 You won't be giving them any info on you, but you won't be confounding them either.
- akjssdk 7y ago
  True, but at least it prevents them from linking accounts. It is equivalent to no profile picture, which you might not want to keep up appearances.
  - zgramana 7y ago
    You may be surprised to learn that your face is your least identifying trait online. You network of friends/followers/likes identifies you far more readily—even if you use a random username.[1] Managing your privacy is a lot like CPU side channel attacks. It forces you to re-evaluate your fundamental assumptions about what information can be exploited. [1] http://www.vldb.org/pvldb/vol7/p377-korula.pdf http://www.vldb.org/pvldb/vol7/p377-korula.pdf
- lloeki 7y ago
  While reading the comment, I was thinking about overlaying faces with the Laughing Man instead of thispersondoesnotexist. http://cdn.collider.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/ghost-in-the-shell-laughing-man-logo.gif http://cdn.collider.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/ghost-in-...
- gertrunde 7y ago
  I'm not sure what is not working-as-intended here? Run facial recognition against computer generated face, got no matches. Surely that is the expected and intended result from both parties? Or is it expected to match against a different face?
  - moftz 7y ago
Cthulhu_ 7y ago
I grew up with the "don't use your real name on the internet" in the back of my head, this was before kids got internet safety classes. 5-10 years later, Facebook came up with their real name policy and started asking people to snitch on their friends if they used a fake name. Google, and mainly Youtube, came with a real name policy as well, on the one hand for Google+, but on the other to try and fight comment abuse - theory being people are more hesitant to be a dick on the internet if they use their real name. But people got used to that real fast, and since there was little consequences anyway, it didn't work. People have valid reasons to use a fake name on the internet; government and business surveillance is a big one. Abusive / stalker exes are another. Having an alternate persona (e.g. entertainers, authors) which people are trying to hide from their un-understanding or abusive family, or society at large.
- teddyh 7y ago
  > People have valid reasons to use a fake name on the internet; […] Here is a more exhaustive list: Who is harmed by a "Real Names" policy? https://geekfeminism.wikia.org/wiki/Who_is_harmed_by_a_%22Real_Names%22_policy%3F https://geekfeminism.wikia.org/wiki/Who_is_harmed_by_a_%22Re...
api 7y ago
Your peers were being rational, but it's a drop in the bucket. I've come to the conclusion that privacy can only be protected with legislation. There is too much surface area to protect for the average person to police their own data trail online. Even experts have a tough time doing it. You'd have to abstain from virtually everything, and even then you can't keep other people from posting you, tagging you, etc. This isn't a technical issue. It's a political issue.

by 40four 7y ago

wideasleep1 7y ago

Starting in the early 90's, 'everyone's a dog on the internet', so my profile pics were dogs. One buzzed evening, I changed a few to Fabio. Good luck, Fabio,

jlgaddis 7y ago
"I miss the good ole days of the Internet -- back when the men were men, the women were men, and the kids were FBI agents."

david-cako 7y ago

I too am extremely opposed to any and all non-consenting invasions of digital privacy (i.e., the problem isn’t the known-known of what you upload, but the hidden implications of it), but on the contrary, I make a disciplined effort to make my digital fingerprint reflect my actual views and identity. Whatever time capsule my digital identity ends up in, I want to be as accurate and beautiful as possible. This includes my avid support of corporations which make good faith efforts to defend natural rights and freedoms, and my vehement opposition to corporate/political nonsense that does not represent, in good faith, the interests of humanity and nature. “A reasonable amount” of surveillance is an essential aspect of society, but it SHOULD be considered invasive, and should never be invisible. I suspect that there will be BS metrics to evaluate how “consenting” a given individual is to NSA/Clearview type behavior, and I would hope that I am casting a shield of protection. I feel bad about the fact that an element of bitterness is necessary to be resilient. I know no other way than truth. I truly act as if AI is learning from me, and believe that there are long reaching and metaphysical effects to all actions.

specialist 7y ago
Thank you for sharing this viewpoint. Your end goals are admirable. I will seriously consider adopting your strategy. Obviously, I'm using a nym. Because I've wanted to my life to be faceted. I've lived very publicly before (ran for office). But in geekdom, I didn't want people to casually correlate my politics (activism) with my open source efforts. Again, thank you.

stiray 7y ago

Replacing pictures wont help (they already have them), GDPR request for deletion might work better but on the other side you also give them your confirmed identity. With companies as shady as this one, they might just set a flag in their database and add your documents data to them. As you have figured out on your own, public should listen to some people warning about this for more than decade instead of making fun from them (tin foil hat,...). And if anyone thinks that google and facebook are not having their own versions of clearview, think again. Any form of online presence under real name has to be minimized and it is doable but this would mean that all personal narcissistic pushes would need to be stopped (or should I say - cured) and refrain yourself from using any personal information (no, you wont secure my account by having my phone number, provide me TOTP if the security is really the reason) on the internet while avoiding it beeing stolen by apps (application firewalls, sending back fake data and not using any google applications including removing their preinstalled spyware by rooting the phone). I can guarantee you that you wont be missing anything relevant (I am doing it for more than decade). But. Will you do that? Can you do that? Do you want to do that? Most people just rather take blue pill.

lucb1e 7y ago
> With companies as shady as this one, they might just set a flag in their database and add your documents data to them. This is exactly my fear. If they were more legitimate, I wouldn't be worried about sending an ID card. Thinking if it makes sense to fake an ID with my real picture on it so they can give me the data and 'delete' it but with a fake name to make sure I'm at least not feeding the troll.
justaguyhere 7y ago
GDPR request for deletion might work better Dumb question - how can anyone be sure that companies actually delete the data? What about the backups, what happens to the data there? How do these govt enforcers verify this? Also, what about Clearview's employees abusing the data? what stops them from snooping on someone they are interested in?
- lonelappde 7y ago

JDulin 7y ago

Just for the record, the journalist who broke the story on Clearview noted that Clearview AI has specifically demonstrated it isn't fooled by thispersondoesnotexist.com: https://twitter.com/kashhill/status/1218542846694871040?s=20 https://twitter.com/kashhill/status/1218542846694871040?s=20 You won't be giving them any info on you, but you won't be confounding them either.

akjssdk 7y ago
True, but at least it prevents them from linking accounts. It is equivalent to no profile picture, which you might not want to keep up appearances.
- zgramana 7y ago
  You may be surprised to learn that your face is your least identifying trait online. You network of friends/followers/likes identifies you far more readily—even if you use a random username.[1] Managing your privacy is a lot like CPU side channel attacks. It forces you to re-evaluate your fundamental assumptions about what information can be exploited. [1] http://www.vldb.org/pvldb/vol7/p377-korula.pdf http://www.vldb.org/pvldb/vol7/p377-korula.pdf
lloeki 7y ago
While reading the comment, I was thinking about overlaying faces with the Laughing Man instead of thispersondoesnotexist. http://cdn.collider.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/ghost-in-the-shell-laughing-man-logo.gif http://cdn.collider.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/ghost-in-...
gertrunde 7y ago
I'm not sure what is not working-as-intended here? Run facial recognition against computer generated face, got no matches. Surely that is the expected and intended result from both parties? Or is it expected to match against a different face?
- moftz 7y ago

Cthulhu_ 7y ago

I grew up with the "don't use your real name on the internet" in the back of my head, this was before kids got internet safety classes. 5-10 years later, Facebook came up with their real name policy and started asking people to snitch on their friends if they used a fake name. Google, and mainly Youtube, came with a real name policy as well, on the one hand for Google+, but on the other to try and fight comment abuse - theory being people are more hesitant to be a dick on the internet if they use their real name. But people got used to that real fast, and since there was little consequences anyway, it didn't work. People have valid reasons to use a fake name on the internet; government and business surveillance is a big one. Abusive / stalker exes are another. Having an alternate persona (e.g. entertainers, authors) which people are trying to hide from their un-understanding or abusive family, or society at large.

teddyh 7y ago
> People have valid reasons to use a fake name on the internet; […] Here is a more exhaustive list: Who is harmed by a "Real Names" policy? https://geekfeminism.wikia.org/wiki/Who_is_harmed_by_a_%22Real_Names%22_policy%3F https://geekfeminism.wikia.org/wiki/Who_is_harmed_by_a_%22Re...

api 7y ago

Your peers were being rational, but it's a drop in the bucket. I've come to the conclusion that privacy can only be protected with legislation. There is too much surface area to protect for the average person to police their own data trail online. Even experts have a tough time doing it. You'd have to abstain from virtually everything, and even then you can't keep other people from posting you, tagging you, etc. This isn't a technical issue. It's a political issue.