Fox News
Expand
Browse All Video
Watch Live

You're watching...

Facial Recognition Software Putting Your ID at Risk?

Details

  • Description

    Privacy expert Ginger McCall explains

  • Duration 4:04
  • Date

Clips

Also in this playlist...

Editor's Picks

Auto-advance: ON

Auto-advance
View All

Transcript

This transcript is automatically generated

Right now what could be the real threat of facial recognition software.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon university in Pittsburgh finding a quick scan of photos on social networking sites like FaceBook.

Cannot only identify you quickly but also reveal some of your private data in the world even sometimes.

Your Social Security number how they do that.

Ginger McCall is the open government counsel for epic -- Electronic Privacy Information Center.

You know some of these sites like FaceBook and Google are way ahead of me when it comes to you know their capabilities.

But let's let's try and go through it firm luddites like me.

There is facial recognition software out there Google just bought a company that provides this stuff that.

Allow you on the surface to find pictures of your friends via the Internet right.

Yes.

So -- -- -- -- -- -- how it's its own space -- actually has its own facial recognition software that it has recently ruled out.

And the way that it created that software is actually at issue right now.

The -- the software was created was that FaceBook was for months and possibly even years collecting user data when they attacked pictures.

And using that to create an underlying database that would then allow them to in the future recognize people's faces when -- picture was uploaded on FaceBook.

And they did all of this without any sort of user consent that -- never -- users do you want to be involved in this development of this technology do you want to be in this database.

Scary enough I mean just that that would a couple of clicks people could find pictures -- -- -- or me or anybody else who exists on the Internet right.

It's very problematic and it's especially problematic because companies like FaceBook.

Are constantly pushing more and more user information out there -- to the public domain.

It used to be that when you signed up for FaceBook you could set your preferences so that your profile picture would only be beautiful by your friends.

But about a year and a half ago FaceBook changed their policy and now those pictures have to be publicly available.

You can't protect your on profile picture and those profile pictures were what were used in and that study.

But it goes beyond just the profile pictures because this will not professor and some of the students at Carnegie Mellon who were working on this research project found that.

What just by having somebody's pictures just by using this facial recognition technology.

And some other relatively easy tricks they were able come up with people's Social Security numbers.

Yeah that's because so much information is being pushed out into public -- -- by FaceBook they for a while made friends list mandatory early public.

Geographic information.

Interests -- likes activities all of these things became mandatory early public information and that information can be stitched together and used in ways that users never never contemplated.

Because a lot of people don't know this but for instance the state you were born in determines the first couple of digits of your Social Security numbers -- if you got it on your FaceBook profile.

That you were born in Denver as I was.

People now believe they can start getting a handle on what your Social Security numbers right yes and birthdays can be used for even -- that and birth dates are out there on FaceBook often times publicly available.

So how -- -- how -- nation is is out there so how do you fix it you just have to be very careful what you put on FaceBook and -- many sites.

Well I think it's like a combination 61 we need stronger privacy laws we need more enforcement by the FTC ailing companies like FaceBook violate users' expectations.

About their own data and we also need.

Users to create pressure on these companies to.

Creates an environment where there are more privacy friendly social networks and there are companies out there that are creating privacy friendly social networks and.

Users should explore those possibilities ginger McCall from -- the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

Thank you.

Thank you such an interesting point me by ginger about users are American consumers have to get angry and and talk to these companies -- don't know -- happening and up in your packet it that's that's tough right.

At educate yourself has really interesting segments -- -- good things about.

This is off the -- if they --

Load More