Facial Recognition: "Big Brother" is big
business?
May 16, 2013 3:34 PM
The odds are you are not just a face in the crowd any
longer. Even if your picture isn't plastered all over social networking and
photo-sharing sites, facial recognition technology in public places is making
it harder if not impossible to remain anonymous. Lesley Stahl reports on the
new ways this technology is being used that even has one of its inventors
calling it too intrusive. Her 60 Minutes report will be broadcast Sunday, May
19 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
Professor Alessandro Acquisti of Carnegie Mellon, who
researches how technology impacts privacy, stunned Stahl with an experiment. He
photographed random students on the campus and in short order, not only
identified several of them, but in a number of cases found their personal
information, including social security numbers, just using a facial recognition
program he downloaded for free. Acquisti says smart-phones will make
"facial searches" as common as Google searches in the future. And
nearly everybody can be subject to such prying, even those who are careful
about their Internet use.
"One of the participants, before doing the
experiment, told us, 'You're not going to find me because I'm very careful
about my photos online.' And we found him," says Acquisti, "Because
someone else had uploaded a photo of him."
Companies are beginning to use facial recognition
technology to improve business. National retailers are installing cameras, some
in store mannequins, to learn more about customers, while entities like malls
can put cameras in digital billboards that recognize the age and gender of
their shoppers and tailor ads to them on the spot.
At the cutting edge of the technology is a system now in
testing called Facedeals, which is demonstrated for Stahl at a restaurant.
Facial recognition technology quickly identified her and links up to her
Facebook "likes" for the information it needs to instantly offer her
a deal on her favorite beverage. The offer pops up on her cell phone within
seconds of entering the restaurant.
To be clear, Stahl has to "opt in," or give permission
for her data to be retrieved by Facedeals, developed by marketing firm
Redpepper. But the fear is as facial recognition gets better and more in use by
commercial entities, it will increasingly track us without our knowledge or
consent. "What's unique about face recognition is the fact that you can do
it surreptitiously, from a distance, and continually," explains Joseph
Atick, one of the pioneers in developing facial recognition. Two decades ago,
as a young scientist, he helped make the technology work. Now it gives him
pause. "Big Brother is no longer big government; Big Brother is big
business."
Atick believes the commercial use of facial recognition
technology should be regulated, as the current lack of laws could lead to an
infringement of people's privacy. "My identity, my faceprint should be
recognized as my property. My face is as important as my financial records, as
my health records. It's very private to me," Atick tells Stahl.
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