The other day I was reading a post by one of my favorite bloggers, Billionaire Mark Cuban. In four short paragraphs Cuban scared the hell out of me.
The post is about an investment of his in technology that monitors traffic information and patterns. Cuban claims that it allows for anonymity but can help businesses monitor traffic. Think shoppers at a store and how they wander through. It helps the business develop better flow for sales. In my mind its brilliant.
What scared me was this…
The next extension is to install it in places where we can add facial recognition software. So rather than someone checking in to a specific application, we would already know you are there.
Even more interesting is the fact that Facebook provides a database of 500mm people and their names from around world. While not all profile pictures are going to be valid in facial recognition software, most will. Few people exclude their basic name and picture information from public search, so FB could be the first to provide a database of names and faces to the commercial world of facial recognition
Now add in a tad of Policing.
The problem is this simple things we upload to Facebook and other sites can and probably will be used to cause us harm. Â By harm I mean we could now be forced to pay fines, fees and taxes and all the data used to enforce these are provided by us on the web.
Cuban’s company might not be doing this but our government might very well be. I work in government and I understand the simple principle that anyone who has to “get elected†to keep their jobs is never ever trustworthy of anything including personal information.
If you don’t believe me think about this…
Two years ago the Utah State Tax Commission purchased Pictometry. USTC purchased and licensed the software and allow all of the information used for any state or local government agency.
Here is the scenario…
You fix up your yard etc now the property tax division can see this using Pictometry and can adjust your property value thus increasing your taxes. Or if you build/add on something without the proper documentation suddenly the government without proper procedure can see it from their office without due process of law. Â Properties are now able to be looked at without your consent and without proper due process of law.
This software is accurate and the photos are updated several times a year. I have access to these photos. They are so accurate that I can recognize some I know mowing their lawn. This accuracy has increased revenue so much that Utah is able to pay the outrageous fees for this software and data and still make more money than without it.
Now imagine what they are doing with your recently updated profile pics from Facebook.
Let’s let our minds wander a little with imagination and I will propose a simple scenario.
Big Brother Government needs to create a new revenue stream… Elected officials need to have a cause for the people so that he can get re-elected. IE: Funding a new sports arena.
Big Brother decides that in addition to funding the new sports arena, he wants to combat obesity by taxing McDonalds because McDonalds makes people fat. (My view is people do things to be fat not McDonalds). The government in acts a visitation style tax. I mean after all government knows what’s best for you and that is only one visit to McDonalds per week. If you visit McDonalds more than 2 times a week they will tax your order.  Facial recognition software could make it so that government could monitor your activities using Facebook profile photos or any other government database.
Another version of this scenario is insurance companies also monitor McDonalds traffic and charges you more for healthcare because you visit McDonalds at a higher rate.
It makes it seem that George Orwell wasn’t too farfetched now.
My opinion as an honest law abiding citizen is simple. It’s no one’s business how many times I visit McDonalds including McDonalds.
