Russian face-recognition app "may bring end to public anonymity

Or something like this:

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In that case I just hope @Otherbrother never becomes a wanted criminal. (Or Vince Vaughn, apparently.)

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But the power balance swings almost entirely one way. Sure, you could use it to maybe identify the guy catcalling you on the street (if you can manage to stop and get a clear picture), but then what? If someoneā€™s actually stalking you IRL such that theyā€™re showing their face, you likely already know who they are (and this helps very little in getting it to stop). This helps not at all with any sort of anonymous harassment. Meanwhile the power this grants to stalk and harass is enormous.

The options get creepier and creepier!

Letā€™s face it - this is going to be the primary use.

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ā€œWe cheat the other guy and pass the savings on to you!ā€

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I think it could potentially be a tool for scammers or other unsavory types. Either online or local criminals. I havenā€™t brainstormed on ways it could be put to use, but i just know thereā€™s a practical angle in there.

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Brrr, fucking awful. Is there an option to nuke this shit from orbit? No? Dang. The future sucks.

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Nope, the primary use will be ā€œlaw enforcementā€ of the worst type.

Thatā€™s even creepier than stalking.

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It does seem to be inherently set up for unsavory uses.

Theyā€™ve got more industrial-strength versions (i.e. mass photography and identification).

Itā€™s for work so I have no friendsā€¦ Wait I donā€™t have any friends in IRL either. There might be few pics of me online but I canā€™t find them.

I wonder if Dazzle camo works against facial recognition? Thatā€™d be sort of neat, to the degree that anything as annoying as full-face opaque makeup can be ā€˜neatā€™.

Maybe mix it up a bit by including pigments with substantial differences in reflectivity in the near IR; but not in the visual spectrum, to help increase the delta between what (at least the more poorly filtered) digital cameras see and what the naked eye sees.

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Of course Iā€™m objectifying you, dear; but Iā€™m being efficient and data-driven about it. You should be flattered!

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Just because most movie stars arenā€™t jerks doesnā€™t mean that ā€¦ uuuhhh ā€¦

Iā€™m predicting a surge in sales of ā€˜Groucho Glassesā€™

Take photos of folks arriving at the airport for a trip and then figure out who they are and where they liveā€¦

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the app could revolutionise dating: ā€œIf you see someone you like, you can photograph them, find their identity, and then send them a friend request.ā€

Stalking is the new dating???

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I assume they will underbid for contracts in order to get access to citizen data.

Think of the savings, taxpayers!!!

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The issue here is that you canā€™t shame a creep, it cuts disproportionately against the sane.

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Well, in some cases you probably can (Iā€™m thinking of the few videos where someone has tracked down and confronted an online trolley, or papered their neighborhood with photos of a creep and a description of his nature), but I admit this app definitely favors the creeps.

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Eh, like any real name policy, crazies are more than happy to post horrible things from their public social media profiles and under their real names.

The tiny percentage of persons tracked down IRL (ugh) and confronted in person doesnā€™t offer an alternative to just protecting privacy to begin with.

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