A startup called PimEyes allows anyone to identify a stranger within seconds with just a photo of the person’s face. The technology has alarmed privacy advocates worldwide.

  • mo_ztt ✅@lemmy.worldEnglish
    57·
    9 months ago

    Consider the consequences, says journalist Kashmir Hill, of everyone deciding to use this technology at all times in public places.

    “Something happens on the train, you bump into someone, or you’re wearing something embarrassing, somebody could just take your photo, and find out who you are and maybe tweet about you, or call you out by name, or write nasty things about you online,” said Hill

    In an interview with NPR, he said the abuse of the tool has been overstated, noting that the site’s detection tools intercepted just a few hundreds instances of people misusing the service for things like stalking

    Y’all are angling for a gold medal at the understatement olympics.

    There are potential uses of the technology that could be beneficial. For instance, for people who are blind, or for quickly identifying someone whose name you forgot and, as the company highlights, keeping tabs on one’s own images on the web.

    He continued: “PimEyes can be used for many legitimate purposes, like to protect yourself from scams,” he said. “Or to figure out if you or a family member has been targeted by identity thieves.”

    OH, COME ON

    I love how they really have to dig to even come up with some legitimate ways to use the technology.

    • Hotdogman@lemmy.world
      33·
      9 months ago

      Like that wouldnt be more awkward.

      “Oh hey! Long time no see… -points cellphone at person’s face- …Tom!”

          • Steev@lemmy.world
            2·
            9 months ago

            My glasses prescription means that I’m putting my glasses on at the start of the day and not randomly taking them off. I think they’d want them used like that, not randomly putting them on like reading glasses. But that would be pretty funny.

    • treefrog@lemm.ee
      161·
      9 months ago

      My girlfriend has facial ephasia. Basically her brain doesn’t easily break faces into the distinct parts the way most people do that allows for quick recognition.

      She may as well be looking at butts with their lack of distinguishing features.

      Not disagreeing with your point. The technology does not have adequate safeguards to prevent abuse by both individual and state actors. But it would legitimately help my gf feel less awkward socially.

      • TheActualDevil@lemmy.world
        4·
        9 months ago

        I said this elsewhere, but I’ll say it here too. Your girlfriend should not have to adapt to society to feel less socially awkward. The world needs to be more accepting of people with issues like that. It shouldn’t be socially awkward. It should be okay for her to just say “Hey, sorry, I don’t recognize faces without context. Where do I know you from?”

        I had a friend years ago with aphasia and I would help them out when we’d meet by telling them what I’d be wearing and be on the look-out for them so I could walk up to them and they wouldn’t have to pick me out of a crowd. I’d also usually greet them with my name. They were really good at identifying voices usually, but the small effort was always appreciated, and it’s not that hard.

        Their aphasia also extended beyond faces, so they would often have problems finding their car if they didn’t park in the same place, so they would take a picture of the car and some landmark near by. They would show me the pictures so I could help them find it.

        What I’m saying is, is we as a society are going to be social to this great of a degree, where we interact with dozens of people, we need to learn to make it a place where everyone can also be involved as they are, not force them to conform to impossible standards for them.

        • treefrog@lemm.ee
          2·
          9 months ago

          I hear you 100% and I think people are getting better about it generally . A lot of people in our community are very inclusive and accepting of differences. And I’m helping her feel more okay about it and accepting of social interactions just sometimes feeling awkward.

      • Dyskolos@lemmy.zip
        4·
        9 months ago

        There is no “adequate safeguards” in such technology. If it’s out there somehow, it will get abused if there’s a reason for it. That’s like a universal law. A product with such potential to be abused, will be abused, no matter what smart super solution for protection someone might come up with.

        Not to say it wouldn’t be a lifechanger for your gf or other people with a legitimate reason.

      • Dirk Darkly@sh.itjust.works
        63·
        9 months ago

        It would be less awkward to pull out a phone, take a picture of someone and pull up their info, adding their biometric data to some random company’s servers (possibly against their wishes) instead of just asking what their name is? Seems way less awkaward and more reasonable to just say she has facial ephasia than do all that.

        • treefrog@lemm.ee
          4·
          9 months ago

          She has strategies to recognize people. My help is one. Another is clothing styles, gait, posture, etc.

          And she does ask. It’s just socially awkward and disconnecting. And people often assume you don’t care if you meet them several times and don’t recognize them.

          Again, I don’t think technology like this is good without serious protections in place.

          My gf in particular probably wouldn’t use this. But I can see it being helpful for other people in similar circumstances.

          And honestly I didn’t read the article. I figured they had it built into glasses like Google glass. Pulling out a phone to recognize people would be super awkward.

    • Uprise42@artemis.camp
      11·
      9 months ago

      To protect us from scams they made it easier than ever to set up a scam!

      Just plug your victims photo into this website and get every other photo they’ve ever posted!

    • Peaty@sh.itjust.works
      7·
      9 months ago

      Wait this is about Pimeyes? That’s used to figure out who you know has an OnlyFans account, right?

      • mo_ztt ✅@lemmy.worldEnglish
        10·
        9 months ago

        Close. It’s about Pimeyes which is used to figure out the name and location of the Onlyfans girl you have a weird parasocial crush on. What’s the worst that could happen?

        (Technically, it only finds other photos on the internet of whatever random person you have a single photo of, which you can then often leverage into knowing their name and location.)

    • atetulo@lemm.ee
      3·
      9 months ago

      All this facial recognition stuff is going to do is normalize wearing masks and other head-coverings in public.