Facial recognition: Feature creep may impose government's software in our lives, expert warns

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-...privacy-concerns-about-the-capability/9017494

 

Isn't it a bit late for that when you can take a picture of a stranger and Facebook already knows who they are?
This feature creep started a long time ago I mentioned this before, in or around 2003 I had 3 hotmail addresses.
1 MyRealName@hotmail.com
2 MyAlias1@hotmail.com
3 MyAlias2@hotmail.com

I used the first one for family and friends online shopping and real world stuff like banking,
I used the second one for online chat and forums.
I used the third one for other random website signups.

The 1st one, I set up with my real name information, the other two had random fake name, address etc.
I used the first and second one in MSN messenger.

So then one day when I turned on my PC, MSN messenger popped up with a balloon saying a new update is available. I clicked on it, the update installed and the updated MSN messenger included a new feature, with a new button, find all the email addresses associated with your contacts.
I tried it on a few of my contacts and it worked. Listed several email addresses for each contact and I noticed some had real name email addresses for people I had previously only known by internet alias.
I thought at the time, this is an invasion of privacy. Then I said what about me? So I added one of my aliases to my RealName MSN messenger as a contact and clicked the button. It listed all my hotmail email accounts as email addresses associated with that contact including my real name one.

My jaw dropped when I saw that. I couldn't believe it. How could MSN messenger know all 3 of those email addresses belonged to the same person, Me, when the signup info was different in each, and I had only used 2 of them in MSN messenger.

Then I realised, MS knew the same Windows account on the same computer had been used to access all three email accounts. But wait a minute, how can they know that?
That has to mean when I connected to hotmail.com in my browser, the browser was sending them details of the Windows account that was being used!
I was thinking this can't be right browsers aren't supposed to have that kind of access.
Then it dawned on me. Windows Update!!
It had to be, Windows update has that kind of access they must be using it to grab that info!
So then a few days later, I turn on my PC, MSN pops up and starts automatically updating. No balloon message this time, just MSN messenger is updating. It finished the update and guess what, that email linking feature was removed. I said wow isn't this some s***.
I guessed someone at MS realized that feature was not supposed to be a public one, maybe they released the update by mistake?

So I brought it up on a couple of forums. No one had seen it, I asked some of my friends. None of them had installed that update, most said they just ignore those new update balloon messages because they know its gonna make them restart their computer.

The upshod of all that, no one took any notice when I tried to tell them, they didn't believe MS was doing such things, and I couldn't prove it therefore I was a conspiracy theorist and a member of the tinfoil hat brigade. I later learned the term conspiracy theorist was a term coined by the CIA in a directive issued in the 1960's. Psy ops. Conspiracy theorist, a term to be used to publicly belittle, ridicule and dismiss those who proposed information that contradicted the official line.
Of course I was vindicated many years later when Snowdon revealed what the tech industry had been up to, even though obviously what I had claimed, paled into insignificance it was clearly the early stages of the surveillance we have since become accustomed to.
Moral of the story, when officialdom and/or the mainstream media, calls something "conspiracy theory" don't dismiss such theorists out of hand. Evaluate what they have to say, use common sense and try to cross check their information if possible, because some of the time they might just have been right all along.
Sure there's a lot of conspiracy bs out there, but you know some of that is also psy ops, to dilute possibly accurate info by concocting other alternate and sometimes ludicrous conspiracy which serves to create confusion and dischord amongst those who realise the official line is false but are now faced with a miriad of bs when they try to search for the truth while at the same time damaging the credibility of anyone who disputes the official line.
That all helps create a climate where people would rather say nothing at all than be publicly branded, just another crank.

 

Hi @RockLobster ,

Interesting if somewhat disturbing reading.

Thanks!

 

Yes and I think it is still disturbing to know they were doing that, when you think about what it takes to nail several separate email accounts to the individual user, not only that they used the same windows account but also a unique identifier to the machine itself. That's another reason I guessed it could have been Windows update because it knows the Windows serial number.
So that was back in 2003, there's just no telling what other covert stuff they did since then.

 

@RockLobster

You weren't imagining things or having any unfounded suspicions either.

As far back as Windows 98SE I stopped updates at SP1 because they were found by own little eyes to be trickling things that had nothing to do with security updates (as I consider them) but the fun part of that discovery was that rookie freelance freeware programs I used helped bring it to my attention.

I stopped all Hotmail + Yahoo way back when and also dismissed entirely using Messenger which was increasing riddled with spam laced wormy junk.

It also got this user into the practice of making Images where I could keep the trusted functions and separate them from the suspicious additions.

It's been things like that which gave me and still today gives me trust issues about good ole micro.

 

@EASTER yes and things like that made me realise the word security as in "security updates" can have more than one meaning.

 

Facial recognition: Where is it being used, and how does the technology work?

 

Anyone noticed the self checkouts in Walmart have cameras aimed directly at your face the entire time so you can see yourself on the little screen? I have and I said to my wife you can bet that is linking your face to the name on your debit/credit card.

 

In Supermarkets Cameras have been there a while and all over the place too.

 

Yes I know but this thing is built into the self checkouts aimed right in your face with a little screen next to it so you can see yourself.

 

The man who can't face the internet

 

The problem is though, that the minute he registers his wishes with FB, he's given FB his image. They are a huge part of the problem.

 

Seems contradictory to me. Other than a sneaky acquisition, how is FB going to get a photo to make comparisons if he hasn't given one in the first place? He's given all this info about himself but no pik...and he thinks that alone is going to protect him? What about all the numerous ways they "join the dots" on you. By going to one of the worst sites ever that wants to track your every move and will engage in slippery lies and devious behavior to do that, I'd say this is playing with fire.

 

And 100% of the people who care are on this forum.

Ok I'm exaggerating a little bit, but not much.

 

Experts sound alarm as biometric data from driver's licences added to government database

 

Thanks @Krusty for the update. Another sad nail in the coffin.

 

Biometric data is basically a password you cannot revoke even if that data is stolen.
Except by plastic surgery.
It should never have even been considered for mainstream use.

 

Chinese police get face-recognition sunglasses in crackdown on crime, dissent

 

No points for guessing what they'll do when they see someone their glasses dont recognise...

 

My fear; when this becomes globally acceptable = not far off I suspect.

 

If Orwell had nothing on this then he didn't know the half of whats coming down the pike. @Krusty, what you suspect is indeed not far off. The preparations and groundwork has been carefully laid for decades. It is acceptable already, that's why it is now no longer a trickle but a tsunami.

 

I agree that is absolutely where we are at right now.

 

Chinese authorities use facial recognition, public shaming to crack down on jaywalking, criminals

 

https://www.cnet.com/news/jaywalking-in-china-surveillance-system-will-sms-you-a-fine/