Downside of Being Engaged in the Social Stream

The lack of privacy online is something that concerns me. Actually, over the last few months I’ve come to realize that there is essentially zero online privacy, especially in the world of social media. So while it’s clever that when you post a picture on Facebook it magically suggests the names of other people for you to tag in the picture, I’m not relieved about not having to look them up (I’m actually a little freaked out some times) because Facebook uses “facial recognition software that uses an algorithm to calculate a unique number (“template”) based on someone’s facial features, like the distance between the eyes, nose and ears. This template is based on your profile pictures and photos you’ve been tagged in on Facebook” (Facebook, 2013). Even worse – in my opinion – is Facebook’s 2012 acquisition of Face.com, which means that your face is now in a facial recognition database along with billions of other people, as “of February, 2011, the company (Face.com) had “discovered” 18 billion faces across its API and Facebook applications” (Wikipedia, 2014). In addition to social media tracking you AND with the government playing along, other uses for facial recognition technology include “identifying potential online daters, facial scans to unlock your cell phone, uses for law enforcement tools and “at a store, rather than paying with cash or a credit card, you give a “meaningful nod” to a scanner to make a purchase” (Torgovnick May, 2013).

“Because facial recognition can be used covertly to identify and track people by name at a distance, some civil liberties experts call it unequivocally intrusive. In view of intelligence documents made public by Edward Snowden, they also warn that once companies get access to such data, the government could, too. ‘This is you as an individual being monitored over time and your movements and habits being recorded,’ says Christopher Calabrese, legislative counsel for privacy issues at the American Civil Liberties Union. ‘That is a very scary technological reality’” (Singer, 2014).

With this in mind, I’ve seriously ratcheted back my use of Facebook, as well as Twitter and Instagram. I have asked my friends to not tag me in photos – even though the cat is essentially already out of the bag – and will continue to evaluate how I move forward in the social stream.

References:

Facebook. (2013). How does facebook suggest tags?. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/help/122175507864081

Singer, N. (2014, February 1). When no one is just a face in the crowd. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/02/technology/when-no-one-is-just-a-face-in-the-crowd.html?_r=0

Torgovnick May , K. (2013, October 17). The future of facial recognition: 7 fascinating facts. Retrieved from http://blog.ted.com/2013/10/17/the-future-of-facial-recognition-7-fascinating-facts/

Wikipedia. (2014). Face.com. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face.com