
Google buying the face data of people in the streets for $5 - jrwan
https://9to5google.com/2019/07/22/google-face-data-pixel-4-collection/
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dekhn
I don't really think this is google, I think it's people pretending to be
google.

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nvrspyx
From the article, they mention that it was for improving facial recognition
unlock. Could it be plausible that they're trying to test facial recognition
in real world situations/lighting (e.g. outside in the park on a sunny day)?
It also mentions that they were asked to look at notifications while it
captured facial data. Could that be for attention recognition?

I mean, it still seems sketchy to me, but it does sound at least somewhat
plausible. The article also mentions that the two instances took place in
opposite sides of the country (NYC and Miami).

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jclay
The rep told me that they had intentionally avoided cities with a heavy
presence of tech workers. Based on the survey I completed, they are looking
for a diversity in eye color and those using colored contact lenses. He
mentioned to me they started in Las Vegas. Central Park also makes sense for
this given they can test with a large set of tourists.

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jclay
This happened to me in Central Park a few months ago. It certainly is Google
and they offered me a $5 Starbucks gift card for completing the process. I
discussed in length with the Google rep who was doing it and got some
interesting answers if anyone is curious.

They are certainly using this to train a model to authenticate faces similar
to FaceID. I had to fill out a survey before which asked about my eye color,
if I wear colored contact lenses, etc.

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writepub
Does Google need any more face photos, given the vast trove at Google Photos
and Picasa?

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ninju
They need the 3D elements of the face, probably to help train the system to
avoid being faked by photos :-)

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ganeshkrishnan
Sounds like they need one more app : Google SocialPlusMessagingFace3dScan.

