Cloud-Powered Facial Recognition Is Terrifying

[Swede]

"I never forget a face," goes the Marx Brothers one-liner, "but in your case, I'll be glad to make an exception."


Unlike Groucho Marx, unfortunately, the cloud never forgets. That's the logic behind a new application developed by Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute and Google that's designed to take a photograph of a total stranger and, using the facial recognition software PittPatt, track down their real identity in a matter of minutes. Facial recognition isn't that new -- the rudimentary technology has been around since the late 1960s -- but this system is faster, more efficient, and more thorough than any other system ever used. Why? Because it's powered by the cloud.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/09/cloud-powered-facial-recognition-is-terrifying/245867/

[MADem]

1. Greasepaint and large sunglasses may become a popular look!! nt

[DCBob]

2. "cloud" is an overused, over-hyped buzz word.

Its just a better and more efficient way of managing internet computer resources in a more virtualized, shared and flexible way. It doesnt make content or functionality any better or the system more powerful. An end user wouldn't know the difference if a website or application was run in the "cloud" or just on traditional hardware. Cloud computing is great but it just doesnt mean what many imply or think it means.

[ixion]

3. Google+

that's what it's all about: establishing identity, and here's a reason why.

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. I don't even know what Google Plus is.

I just know that when I go to a lot of websites, my toolbar flashes that I have hitchhikers:
Fb, you tube, google analytics, ( whatever that is).

[ixion]

5. it's google's answer to FB

but they've admitted that their primary goal is to establish a valid user identity. The UI is really poor, in my opinion.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. So, spyware, big time, I take it?

[Occulus]

7. No... Google wants to be the "online ID to rule them all".

What they want is a true online ID system. The spying aspect is 'incidental'.

I am very careful to keep my Google accounts very far away from everything else "me" online for that reason. Googling my real name produces astonishingly few results compared to other people I know, and I'd like to keep it that way.