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I realised what they were doing on the second photo/video. OMG that's the most terrifying thing I have seen in ages. Amazing, innovative, tipping-point-sign,

I realised what they were doing on the second photo/video. OMG that's the most terrifying thing I have seen in ages. Amazing, innovative, tipping-point-sign, but still, terrifying

Cyberdog 4y ago
I was scared at first too until I realized we're talking about people already taking photos for the purpose of posting to Instagram anyway. It's involuntary surveillance while participating in voluntary surveillance.
- somebodynew 4y ago
  It's only following people who posted their own photos voluntarily in this particular implementation, but consider the next incremental step for this same approach: a website where you upload a photo of anyone's face and get a map/trail of every public photo/video posted by someone else where that face appears in the background for the last month. Now you're not just finding the subject of a voluntarily portrait in security camera footage from a public place, but finding anywhere that any private person has gone in any populated area where anyone else is taking photos for social media. How many involuntary social media photo and video backgrounds do you think someone living in NYC or SF is identifiable in every day? I would venture to guess, enough to track a lot of their life. The only thing I see stopping anyone from making this site today is the challenges in scraping large quantities of public data from social media sites. Once you have the data, the rest seems like a solved problem.
  - jrockway 4y ago
    My favorite part of the pandemic is it being socially acceptable to wear a face mask. I enjoy the break from surveillance.
    - lilsoso 4y ago
      Masks increasingly help less and less, for example see: https://www.datasciencecentral.com/sunglasses-and-face-mask-wont-fool-facial-recognition/ https://www.datasciencecentral.com/sunglasses-and-face-mask-...
      - bradknowles 4y ago
        The facial recognition is not the real problem. The real problem is things like gait recognition. Most people already cover some or all of their hips, legs, feet, etc.... But it's hard to hide the way that you walk, regardless of what clothing you wear. And even if you can fake it for a short period of time, it's hard to be consistent about how you fake it over a long period of time. When you can accurately identify the person who is completely covered head to toe, then it becomes a lot harder to hide.
  - Anunayj 4y ago
    Gosh yup! It's incredibly creepy but unfortunately today is a unstoppable reality, specially in high surveillance states. You really cannot expect any privacy outside anywhere, cameras are basically everywhere now, possibly broadcasting the information to the world.
MauranKilom 4y ago
They certainly seem to have a hand for... uncanny projects. Like a clock that shows you what percentage of your life is over.
thih9 4y ago
You might enjoy "the green leopard plague" [1], it's a sci fi novella and (mild spoilers ahead, pause reading if you want to avoid them) it describes a future where image processing like this is a bit more common and accessible. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Green_Leopard_Plague https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Green_Leopard_Plague

I realised what they were doing on the second photo/video. OMG that's the most terrifying thing I have seen in ages. Amazing, innovative, tipping-point-sign, but still, terrifying

Cyberdog 4y ago

I was scared at first too until I realized we're talking about people already taking photos for the purpose of posting to Instagram anyway. It's involuntary surveillance while participating in voluntary surveillance.

somebodynew 4y ago
It's only following people who posted their own photos voluntarily in this particular implementation, but consider the next incremental step for this same approach: a website where you upload a photo of anyone's face and get a map/trail of every public photo/video posted by someone else where that face appears in the background for the last month. Now you're not just finding the subject of a voluntarily portrait in security camera footage from a public place, but finding anywhere that any private person has gone in any populated area where anyone else is taking photos for social media. How many involuntary social media photo and video backgrounds do you think someone living in NYC or SF is identifiable in every day? I would venture to guess, enough to track a lot of their life. The only thing I see stopping anyone from making this site today is the challenges in scraping large quantities of public data from social media sites. Once you have the data, the rest seems like a solved problem.
- jrockway 4y ago
  My favorite part of the pandemic is it being socially acceptable to wear a face mask. I enjoy the break from surveillance.
  - lilsoso 4y ago
    Masks increasingly help less and less, for example see: https://www.datasciencecentral.com/sunglasses-and-face-mask-wont-fool-facial-recognition/ https://www.datasciencecentral.com/sunglasses-and-face-mask-...
    - bradknowles 4y ago
      The facial recognition is not the real problem. The real problem is things like gait recognition. Most people already cover some or all of their hips, legs, feet, etc.... But it's hard to hide the way that you walk, regardless of what clothing you wear. And even if you can fake it for a short period of time, it's hard to be consistent about how you fake it over a long period of time. When you can accurately identify the person who is completely covered head to toe, then it becomes a lot harder to hide.
- Anunayj 4y ago
  Gosh yup! It's incredibly creepy but unfortunately today is a unstoppable reality, specially in high surveillance states. You really cannot expect any privacy outside anywhere, cameras are basically everywhere now, possibly broadcasting the information to the world.

MauranKilom 4y ago

They certainly seem to have a hand for... uncanny projects. Like a clock that shows you what percentage of your life is over.

thih9 4y ago

You might enjoy "the green leopard plague" [1], it's a sci fi novella and (mild spoilers ahead, pause reading if you want to avoid them) it describes a future where image processing like this is a bit more common and accessible. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Green_Leopard_Plague https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Green_Leopard_Plague