Facebook Weighing Up Legality of Facial Recognition in Upcoming Smart Glasses

[Rigby]

Apple doing an on-device solution matching against people in your adressbook I would accept; but Facebook… HELL NO!!

But why? Presumably you'd already know what the people in your address book look like.

I wonder what "nice use cases" the Facebook goon has in mind. I wouldn't want to have a conversation with anyone who's wearing AR glasses. It's like they're constantly holding a camera in your face, recording everything you say and do and also streaming it to the greatest data collector in the world. There was a reason for the "glasshole" movement.

 

[69Mustang]

So how many pairs of glasses will the average person have to carry around? I get tired of carrying sun glasses, and 'regular' glasses. I think Google got it right when they discontinued their glasses. It's a silly idea, but when has silly ever stopped a company from wasting massive amounts of money pushing a crap product they think will revolutionize the world, and in FB's case, give them even more data to mine, parse, and sell.

Google moved Glass from consumer to enterprise applications.
How many pair will the average person have to carry around? Hypothetically only one. Today's smart glass projects typically offer the ability to use both prescription and transition lenses.

 

[snebes]

I see another class action lawsuit check in my future if this happens.

 

[Jimmy James]

I can’t believe there is a single person with good intentions who would want this.

 

[svanstrom]

But why? Presumably you'd already know what the people in your address book look like.

I'm actually working on something that would tie in nicely with this; and sort of give an abbreviated update about a person.

So if you were to meet me your glasses could show my latest social media updates, and stuff like that.

 

[ImperialForces]

Facebook is a stalker. There needs to be government regulation here.

 

[RadioHedgeFund]

It’s Facebook. Unless the US and/or EU calls for them to legally be broken up they will continue to just do whatever the hell they want.

 

[qoop]

Creepy Uncle Mark will probably assure everyone that these glasses won't be used for nefarious purposes.

 

[TheOldChevy]

Apple doing an on-device solution matching against people in your adressbook I would accept; but Facebook… HELL NO!!

There's just no way that they can be trusted with some nice sounding legalease about how they aren't going to be evil this time.

Comparing vs your own addressbook and comparing vs the world database is a completely different situation. And both are difficult to accept for me. Main problem is that this system may accumulate data on people that never approved it. I think that this will be illegal in more than one country.

 

[Schizoid]

It’s almost like they want to gather data about you and sell it...

 

[patrick001]

This is a case where the government needs to step in and be ahead of the curve for a change. We need a comprehensive privacy standard in the US. It would be even better to have a worldwide minimum standard but that’s highly unlikely.

This comment should have the most upvotes

 

[Attirex]

No.

 

[cmaier]

But why? Presumably you'd already know what the people in your address book look like.

I think it would still be useful - not to tell me who the person is, but to tell me information about the person that I might not remember. “Wife’s name is ____.” “Has been working at Big Co. since ____”. “Has __ kids and a pet ____”

It could also gather information about the encounter, to be stored on-device for my own later use. “You last saw ___ on Dec. 2, 2020, at this location ____”

If you’re in a big crowd, you might not notice someone, and the glasses could give you a notification - “____ from your contacts is here”

 

[hvfsl]

I think it would still be useful - not to tell me who the person is, but to tell me information about the person that I might not remember. “Wife’s name is ____.” “Has been working at Big Co. since ____”. “Has __ kids and a pet ____”

It could also gather information about the encounter, to be stored on-device for my own later use. “You last saw ___ on Dec. 2, 2020, at this location ____”

If you’re in a big crowd, you might not notice someone, and the glasses could give you a notification - “____ from your contacts is here”

The problem is the brain is a bit like a muscle, if you stop using it, you won't be able to do those tasks in future (or find it a lot harder). So if everyone starts relying in tech to remember that kind of information, people will start to lose the ability to remember it themselves. London taxi drivers are a good example of this (the proper ones which have to memorise all of London's roads), their brains rewire themselves to better store and quickly retrieve that kind of information.

Having said that, I would love some AR glasses for cycling. Giving me a displays of speed etc, plus directions of which road (or muddy path in the case of mountain biking) I take next.

 

[svanstrom]

The problem is the brain is a bit like a muscle, if you stop using it, you won't be able to do those tasks in future (or find it a lot harder). So if everyone starts relying in tech to remember that kind of information, people will start to lose the ability to remember it themselves. London taxi drivers are a good example of this (the proper ones which have to memorise all of London's roads), their brains rewire themselves to better store and quickly retrieve that kind of information.

Don't ignore us that already have forgotten everything about you, and can't even place or name you if we meet outside of the usual setting where we meet; we need this.

 

[ccsicecoke]

This would only work if people being facial recognized has a Facebook account. Delete your account and stop using FB

 

[MauiPa]

This is exactly the same product Apple is developing.

Ummm, no

 

[cmaier]

The problem is the brain is a bit like a muscle, if you stop using it, you won't be able to do those tasks in future (or find it a lot harder). So if everyone starts relying in tech to remember that kind of information, people will start to lose the ability to remember it themselves. London taxi drivers are a good example of this (the proper ones which have to memorise all of London's roads), their brains rewire themselves to better store and quickly retrieve that kind of information.

Don‘t be silly. Einstein couldn’t remember his own phone number. This sort of nonsense has been said since the dawn of the computer age. They used to say it about calculators, too. Free your brain up for important stuff - making decisions and problem solving. Recall of facts that are easily looked up is something with which one doesn’t need to concern oneself.

Your London taxi driver example is proof: when was the last time anyone needed to know, from memory, the best route to a random address in a big city? Even before GPS we had maps - are maps evil too?

Every engineer I know looks stuff up, yet we seem to do fine designing CPUs containing billions of transistors.
Every lawyer I know looks stuff up, yet we seem to do fine arguing in court, writing persuasive briefs, etc.

We don’t live in an age where the ability to remember every tiny little fact is of much use.

 

[cmaier]

This would only work if people being facial recognized has a Facebook account. Delete your account and stop using FB

Not true. People who HAVE accounts can tag you in photos they see on facebook, which were uploaded by other people.

This is part of why facebook is so evil. You don’t even have to have an account to be sucked into their web.

 

[subjonas]

If cameras on glasses become a thing, I will be wearing a mask whenever in public, pandemic or no.

 

[Commodore 64]

...and if you tolerate this then your children will be next...

 

[svanstrom]

...and if you tolerate this then your children will be next...

 

[MacSince1985]

As far as I know, Facebook currently only compares your photo to your friends list, and possibly only a subset of those friends. It would be quite a feat to compare it to its 2.8 billion active users in real time.

 

[Rigby]

This would only work if people being facial recognized has a Facebook account. Delete your account and stop using FB

Unless Facebook starts scraping other sites, like Clearview AI.

 

[deckard666]

Said it before years back and I will say it again - no-one likes to wear glasses even people who need them take them off the minute they dont need them. Glasses will never be a thing.