Aus State Media trying to sell surveillance
That selfie you posted can be used to train machines — which might not be a bad thing
Did you hear the one about the person who shared a smoking-hot selfie on social media?
It got plenty of likes, but the biggest was from the tech companies who used it to train their artificial intelligence systems.
This week, consumer group CHOICE revealed retail giants Kmart, Bunnings and The Good Guys have been using facial recognition technology to capture the biometric data of consumers in some of their stores.
Bunnings told CHOICE it was used to "identify persons of interest who have previously been involved in incidents of concern in our stores".
Kmart and The Good Guys did not respond to the ABC's requests for comment.
As part of its investigation, CHOICE asked more than 1,000 people what they thought about this technology – 65 per cent said it was concerning and some described it as "creepy and invasive".
You may agree, but it's worth considering how this kind of surveillance stacks up with the decisions we make every day to give our personal data and images away willingly.
Sharing selfies on social media platforms, using a streaming service or loyalty card all divulge more personal information than the facial recognition technology CHOICE was probing.
Although Meta, the global behemoth that owns Facebook and Instagram, stopped using the tech last year, that doesn’t mean your pictures aren't still harvested by companies who build searchable databases of faces.
That might be news to many people, and it may even prompt some to delete their accounts.
Most won't.
"The algorithms will interpret these photos and use those results to better identify the individual captured in the surveillance image," said Dennis B Desmond, an expert in cyberintelligence at the University of the Sunshine Coast.
And it doesn't matter if they are high- or low-quality images.
"Bad or blurry images are also useful in training the algorithm, since surveillance imagery is not always full face, front-facing, or clear and non-pixelated," he said.
Are the benefits misunderstood?
Dr Desmond said many people don't understand what they can obtain in exchange for giving up a certain level of privacy.
In Osaka, Japan facial-recognition tech is used at some train stations to let people pass through turnstiles without having to get out their travel card.
Retailers rely on it to reduce shoplifting. They can be notified if someone who has stolen from the store before enters it again.
Law enforcement agencies across Australia use it to disrupt serious and violent crime, as well as identity theft.
Dr Desmond said if people heard more about these tangible benefits, they might have a different attitude.
"People see a lot about the collection, but they rarely hear about the use of this data for interdiction or prevention," he said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-19/why-many-people-arent-comfortable-with-facial-recognition/101157518