Google vet hur du ser ut och kan identifiera dig

Numera finns det program som kan identifiera vilka personer som finns på ett foto, givet att programmet fått träna lite innan. Google har ett online-fotoalbumprogram, Picasa,  som lär sig att känna igen ansikten och klassificera dem med namn och e-postadress. Det innebär i praktiken att de som använder Picasa på detta sätt hjälper till att bygga upp en databas till Google, som kan hitta människor på utseendet. Steget är ju inte så långt att använda denna information i övervakningskameror. Det innebär ju om systemet kopplas ihop att man kan spåra en person på utseendet världen över. Det är lite läskigt.

Fast det är klart att på global skala så måste det finnas en hel del som ser likadana ut med dagens teknik. Med dagens teknik...

Google takes every photo that you've uploaded to Picasa, searches them all for faces, then "clusters"these faces into groups of, supposedly, the same people. You then go through each group and tell Google who a person is--including his or her full name, nickname, and e-mail address.

Läs mer: Technology Review: Face Recognition: Clever or Just Plain Creepy?

Assuming that the uploaded pictures also contain the proper EXIF data, then Google will also know exactly when was the picture taken. If you they can also figure out the location the picture was taken on (perhaps as a tagging feature connected to Google Maps?), then they'll be able to track people - where and when they were, and in whose company. They could even extend the concept to try to combine pictures of the same event from different albums into a massive "super-album" of the event, even if the owners of the photographs never found out about each other.

Läs mer: Face Recognition — Clever Or Just Plain Creepy?

Conversation is not the same thing as correspondence. Words uttered in haste over morning coffee, whether spoken in a coffee shop or thumbed on a BlackBerry, are not official correspondence. A data pattern indicating "terrorist tendencies" is no substitute for a real investigation. Being constantly scrutinized undermines our social norms; furthermore, it's creepy. Privacy isn't just about having something to hide; it's a basic right that has enormous value to democracy, liberty, and our humanity.

Läs mer: Schneier on Security: Privacy in the Age of Persistence