New App Allows Strangers to ID You Just by Looking at You
NEWS/ Just When You Thought Google Glass Couldn't Get
Creepier: New App Allows Strangers to ID You Just by Looking at You
by JOHN BOONE Tue., Feb. 4, 2014 4:27 PM PST
Have you ever seen someone wearing Google Glass out at
the bar? Like a real person at a real bar actually wearing Google Glass? If so,
you know how absolutely ridiculous they look. Which may be the only factor we
have that will stop this:
A new app will allow total strangers to ID you and pull
up all your information, just by looking at you and scanning your face with
their Google Glass. The app is called NameTag and it sounds CREEPY.
The "real-time facial recognition" software
"can detect a face using the Google Glass camera, send it wirelessly to a
server, compare it to millions of records, and in seconds return a match
complete with a name, additional photos and social media profiles."
The information listed could include your name, occupation,
any social media profiles you have set up and whether or not you have a
criminal record ("CRIMINAL HISTORY FOUND" pops up in bright red
letters according to the demo).
And NameTag may have already added you to their database.
Two million entries have already been uploaded to
FacialNetwork.com. Once the app officially goes live, you can sign up for
NameTag and opt-out, instead of the alternative: Having to opt-in to allow them
to show your information.
How is that OK?
"It's not about invading anyone's privacy," one
NameTag's creators claimed (via Independent). "It's about connecting
people that want to be connected. We will even allow users to have one profile
that is seen during business hours and another that is seen in social
situations. NameTag can make the big, anonymous world we live in as friendly as
a small town."
It may not be about invading anyone's privacy, but that
sounds like what it does. And forcing people to opt-out if they want to
maintain their privacy is wrong (we would go so far as to say it should be
illegal). But the purported benefits of the app are almost even worse:
They continue, "It's much easier to meet interesting
new people when we can simply look at someone, see their Facebook, review their
LinkedIn page or maybe even see their dating site profile. Often we were
interacting with people blindly or not interacting at all. NameTag on Google
Glass can change all that."
Gross.
It's enough to make you root for that app that lets you
film Google Glass porn. If you had to pick one. Luckily, Google has banned
facial-recognition software from the Glass—for now.
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