e’ve already written about the downsides of dactylography , so let’s now focus on weaknesses in facial recognition. It’s really comes down to recent advances in 3D printing: Today you can print a really realistic copy of a person’s face. Developers of new identification systems will need to take that into account if they want to create really secure solutions.
For example, MasterCard and Google ask users to blink — a simple action that stops fraudsters from fooling the system with the help of a 3D-printed face or even just a photo. Unfortunately, Google’s solution failed — people managed to bypass the security measure with the help of a simple animated picture. MasterCard’s system is under development, so nobody knows yet if it can be fooled the same way.
6. Don’t share your face with any Tom, Dick, or Harry
You may have heard of Anaface, a website that analyzes your photo and rates your level of attractiveness. It uses symmetry as the main criterion — quite a questionable standard, don’t you think? For example, Angelina Jolie rated only 8.4 out of 10 on Anaface. But the site’s accuracy is not its only problem.
First, Anaface’s owners admitted they launched the project to encourage people to seek plastic surgery. Well, at least they’re giving it to us straight.
Second, the website’s terms and conditions are hard to read and really shady. They are given in a very small window so a user needs to scroll a lot to read the more than 7,000 words of small print. That’s why many will probably miss that every user of the site provides it with a “non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license” to use all photos uploaded to Anaface. In plain English: The service can sell the photos people upload without any obligation to pay the real owners of the images.
At the same time users, pledge to upload only their own photos: “You may not post, upload, display or otherwise make available Content that contains video, audio photographs, or images of another person without his or her permission (or in the case of a minor, the minor’s legal guardian);” The conditions also include vague remarks about privacy and the possibility of removing photos after registering a user account — but nobody can do that on Anaface; the site doesn’t allow it.
All in all, everybody collects photos: governments, corporations and companies, and even regular people. Nowadays, everyone can use and misuse facial recognition systems — and all we can do is try to hide from them.