
Facebook's facial recognition knows who your friends are - pavel
http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/12/16/5660488-facebooks-facial-recognition-knows-who-your-friends-are-
======
michaelchisari
Some things in social networking come off as creepy, others don't. Usually,
the key difference is whether the user or the system leads in applying the
feature.

Using facial recognition to help me tag my friends in a photo is not
particularly creepy. Automatically tagging my friends in a photo right when I
upload it, definitely creepy.

Take an example: I usually interact with Alice, Bob, and Charlie around the
subject of Sports. I, as a user, will find it creepy if the system
automatically creates a "Sports" group with Alice, Bob, and Charlie.

However, it's a different circumstance if the system waits for me to create a
"Sports" group, and then searches our history, and says "we suggest adding
these users to your new group based on previous interaction".

If you let the user lead the activity, and then aid them in the process, you
sidestep a lot of the social creepiness of making decisions for them.

~~~
artmageddon
I like the suggestion of letting the user decide on the activity. I found it a
little unnerving the first time I came across it just after Halloween... it
was as though some strange individual knocked on my door after weeks of
stalking my friends, holding up pictures of them and asking, "Is this your
friend Jane Doe? How about this one?" followed by 40 more pictures.

Even just by saying, "We're trying out facial recognition, would you like a
demo?" I would've felt more impressed rather than creeped out.

------
wallflower
Even scarier - the search space for facial recognition is much, much smaller
once one person in a group is identified. At a bar, a random group of people
is not a random group of people once someone is identified. Instead of
searching all of Washington, D.C., just search all their friends and their
friends in the DC area.

------
makmanalp
Picasa did this ages ago.

~~~
bryanh
But, collectively, Picasa doesn't have omnipresent access to millions of
photos of individuals...

------
xd
Think about it for a moment.

1, Facebook automagicly tagging you in pictures based on facial recognition.
2, Geotagging pictures becomes common place.

~~~
jodrellblank
Think about it for a moment, Google maps / streetview combined with a timeline
/ version control system.

See what happened anywhere, anytime, to anyone.

------
gcr
Time for <http://cvdazzle.com/>

------
apu
Anyone know what face recognition system they are using? Is it from face.com?

~~~
beagle3
seems to be.

