Here Little Girl Have Some Candy…Facial Recognition Technology and the Threat to Your Family

Article originally published by The Good Men Project

I adore my kids, and I heart Facebook. As a result, these two passions met long ago and often! Posting images of my kids and their happenings was ancient history and still a current reality when I launched GetKidsInternetSafe. Do I feel uneasy after learning about rampant online victimizations and BigData capture? Well imagine this:

<Old Witch Voice> “Here little girl, would you like some candy?”

Scene change:

<Voice modulated to resemble her own grandmother (who’s on Facebook)>“Here Jenny, would you like a Butterfinger (your fav)/wrapped in sparkles (in your preferred colors)/handed to you by this Maltipoo puppy (the one from your last birthday party)/held by your favorite cartoon character (whom you watched just this morning)/to your favorite song (that’s been on repeat all week)?”

I mean OMG and shiver right? How can we possibly protect them enough? And it’s not just pedophiles that may creep on them, it’s big business! And governments too! Yes I meant that to be plural. Whether you believe identity tracking is a terrifying intrusion on your privacy or you are reassured to have these tools in place for your security, please turn off your social media notifications and read this article so you can be even more informed about important decisions about your family.

What do you think about face recognition technology? Are you concerned, comforted, or somewhere in between? Rate your opinion really quick:

(No concern) 0 to 10 (Extremely concerned)

WHAT IS FACE RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGY?

Face recognition technology is a computer application that collects data from an image of a face and compares it to a larger database, ultimately identifying the person. Older algorithms used data about distinctive facial features to make matches. The newer three-dimensional technology is modeled after the neural networking of the human brain and adds data about face shape and surface contours. As a result of these recent advances, accuracy has greatly increased with identification possible from even side-profiled pictures and even with different lighting. Some 3-D systems boast identification ability as good as a human’s at 97% accuracy!

WHO HAS IT?

Most big technology companies and law enforcement currently use face recognition. Examples include Apple’s iPhoto, Adobe System’s Photoshop, Google’s Picasa, and Microsoft’s Windows Live Photo Gallery.

The FBI database has been estimated to have private data on 4.3 million Americans who have not even been accused of a crime; data that can be pulled up immediately on handheld scanners, paired with other private information, and potentially shared with third parties.

What are you thinking now? Has your 0-10 rating changed at all? Rate again and then read on…

HOW IS FACE RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGY BEING USED?

We can’t be totally sure, as much of its use is confidential. Right Homeland Security? But we do know it’s commonly used in many applications, including photo apps for better focusing and photo organizing and on social media (e.g., tagging), mobile apps that require a selfie for login (e.g., computer access, ATMs, online test taking), or employer systems to track a worker’s computer face-time. Private companies also use it for security purposes, such as casinos in order to identify blacklisted customers.

Governments currently use this data to identify suspects (e.g., at public events or to monitor voter fraud), streamline border crossings (the US will roll it out this summer), and for visa processing and airport surveillance.

An important element to keep in mind is that, unlike with fingerprints and iris scans, this technology does not require the cooperation of the user. Therefore subjects may be unaware they are being identified.

HOW WILL IT BE USED IN THE FUTURE?

So far Facebook and Google are reticent to blatantly apply sophisticated 3-D face recognition software due to a fearful and vocal public. However, recent news reports suggest that Facebook will be utilizing their version of 3-D face recognition technology (DeepFace) on newly posted images in order to notify users their image was just posted. This allows that user the option of blurring their face on the image to preserve privacy. Some European governments have already forced Facebook to delete its face recognition data.

Google (with their social media platform Google +) is not far behind. However, they currently have refused to use facial recognition software for Google Glass or approve third party apps that use it. It has been speculated that Facebook and Google are waiting to apply the advanced technology until the public gets used to computers using face recognition for login. Wait for it…

The courts already obtain warrants to seize Facebook data about specific users, including images, posts, messages, locations, and activities. Facebook has argued that broad use of databases by the government is a violation of the Fourth Amendment freedom from unreasonable searches by the government. That battle continues.

OTHER RELATED DEVELOPMENTS

Big Data is also invested in analyzing text and posts to decipher mood and context as well as facial expression analysis technology. After all, logging viewer engagement and emotional response real-time allows the marketer to lead the potential buyer into a split-second purchase click, without the buyer even knowing he was neuro-marketed. Quick and profitable indeed!

Just this week news reports that Samsung’s SmartTV instructions read, “Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party through your use of Voice Recognition.” Yes, your SmartTV listens in to adapt to the spoken content of your private living room. You know this because a little microphone icon appears in the right hand corner. Right? And you can always turn it off, of course, but it will disable the voice command feature. I wonder what third parties think about the fight my husband and I had last night…

Perhaps you’ve noticed that it’s no coincidence that the very lamp you were shopping online yesterday shows up on your social media feed today. Your buying and browsing habits are already being collected and analyzed so advertisers can market directly to your interests. So generous of them and convenient! To thicken the plot further, consider that it’s not only you that marketers are targeting and tracking. Go to any popular children’s website and you’ll see that products are being blatantly and sophisticatedly pitched to your children. With this technology, that pitch will morph to be designed specifically for your individual child, her likes, her dislikes, all of it.

How is your rating faring now? 0 to 10

WHAT SHOULD WE BE DOING TO ENSURE OUR PRIVACY?

This is where the controversy comes in. It seems people have settled into two camps, like the partygoers I mentioned earlier. One camp feels that people should not post anything; stay off social media and keep it old school. Others feel the ship has sailed. They’ve already got a digital footprint, the disappearance of privacy is the wave of the future. Accept it and don’t bother to swim against the current.

I don’t have a crystal ball that gives me enough information to offer you a concrete call-to-action. Maybe its no big deal that Google knows so much about us, starting at our image. And maybe it’s the beginning of something truly frightening for us. Because I use my image online for branding, my goose is surely cooked as far as face recognition technology goes. But I still have decisions to make about what to allow my kids to post online. There is data protection software out there, but I assure you it isn’t getting many buyers as most of us eat up the opportunity to exchange our private information for fun, free online content (thanks Facebook! Num-num-num). The Japanese recently developed privacy visors with infrared lights to protect facial recognition in public spaces…so there’s that.

I suppose if pressed I would encourage people to stay aware, educated, screen smart, and cautious. And teach your kids to do the same. Hold to strict age guidelines and monitor to prevent oversharing. My GetKidsInternetSafe 30 Days to Internet Safety online parenting course provides detailed suggestions of just how to do that in the most efficient ways possible, along with other ideas that fill Internet risk gaps. Ultimately, we must ask ourselves at many points along the way if the costs outweigh the benefits.

Does the risk of inaccurate face identification put us at high risk? What if other countries that don’t have our human rights protections get ahold of our data? Under what conditions is it acceptable and legal for private and governmental agencies to collect information about us without our knowledge? Furthermore, how is it that they are able to offer opportunities to some but not others based on that knowledge? Has there ever been a time in history where a government secretly collected private information about its citizens? And then treated those citizens differently because of that private information? Anybody? Ever?

Have you heard the allegory that if you put a frog in a pot of boiling water he’ll jump out, but if you put him in while the water’s still cold he’s certainly dinner?

Well I don’t know about you, but it’s feeling a little tepid in here…“Ribbit!”

Admittedly, it’s a bit of a leap from face recognition technology to covert data collection to hacking, behavioral manipulation, and discrimination or coercion. But being a frog myself (and a mom who worries about what kind of world we are handing to our kids), the evidence holds together tight enough for me to be worried.

What’s your 0-10 rating now?

I’m the mom psychologist who will help you GetYourKidsInternetSafe.

Onward to More Awesome Parenting,

Tracy S. Bennett, Ph.D.
Mom, Clinical Psychologist, CSUCI Adjunct Faculty
GetKidsInternetSafe.com