face recognition

As a social networker, I have come to terms with the fact that there are photos of me floating online, and I am either tagged in them, or I’m not. I think the most annoying situation would be to have one or two unflattering photos, which I have no control over or permissions to remove. If you consider how much of our online lives encompass real life, that’s only the part we know about. How has cloud computing opened us up to threats to our personal information, linked us to one another, and left trails to be followed. Facial recognition software is a huge privacy concern, making it easy to find people with minimal effort, which can be dangerous in the wrong hands.

Lets say you have an extremely fun party life, which just happens to be caught in multiple photos, and video. Employers nowadays are googling new hires and looking up candidates on social networking sites. Depending on the position it may or may not be beneficial to you. Even if you try and remain offline, it’s guaranteed that there are photos of you online, somewhere. Is being found online, when you’ve made every precaution not to be, an invasion of privacy? I would definitely say yes, but others would say no. So, where is the invisible line that warns us when we have been virtually violated?

On the bright side, or any side, there are specific parameters that are needed for facial recognition to work. The concept works by mapping out the relative positions of the eyes, nose and mouth. Which means partial headshots will not be included in matches, but the matches do tend to work 9 out of 10 times, or so they claim.

Though the power of facial recognition is an extremely interesting technology, it causes me, and many others, a great deal of worry. No longer will we have to lookup acquaintances by name, we can simply snap a photo and become preview to more than enough information to harass or even stalk a person. My only concern now is how long it will take for a system to be put in place to protect us from ourselves, and each other.

So, Who’s keeping track of who’s tracking us?
[You think someone would have developed an app for that already.]



Sources:
http://www.disinfo.com/2010/08/facial-recognition-software-to-go-public-that-allows-identification-from-online-photos/
http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2007/05/facial-recognition-slipped-into-google-image-search.ars
http://techcrunch.com/2008/09/02/picasa-refresh-brings-facial-recognition/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1280145/Google-facial-recognition-debate-goggles-privacy-controversy.html

Can mySpace hold its own.

If you think about it really, what is mySpace? How is it different from Facebook? They are both unique tools. It’s just that one focuses more on people looking to showcase their talent and abilities, whereas the other is a permanent record of a users connections to friends, enemies, likes and wall posts. Facebook is a "self-contained world," where the only thing you search for is people. You stay connected with friends, all while having the ability to make new ones. MySpace on the other hand is different. Until recently they had a limited ability to communicate with and find friends, but users could market themselves. The problem was users knowing how.

Facebook has not provided the ability for users to customize their pages in the same manner as mySpace, I can only assume because the results could be hideous. However, with the right skill set users, musicians and artists could customize their pages to advertise their music and grow their fan base. It can be difficult, which explains why people pay for it.

There is no poking on mySpace, but at least users have the ability to poke around. The first thing you see when you go to mySpace is NOT a login page; it is an online community, with access to music, games, videos, events, forums, you name it. This would explain why more users navigate to mySpace from search engines. It provides a little more than just people, so why has it faded?

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/myspace

I think the problem lies in the fact that mySpace lacked a main focus. Is it better to be good at ten different things? Or would you rather be really great at one? My space always had one unique feature that they seemed to of overlooked, in the beginning. With their vast library of artists, I think they could have been accomplished a lot more and even improved on the manner in which they sell music to users. Instead they spread themselves to thin.

I had a mySpace account, which I left for dead when I joined Facebook. I have not deleted it because I think eventually I will start using it again. The new trend is in communication over a social network, and Facebook has the lead. I don’t know if mySpace needs to be saved, but they do need to stay on top of their game for the next upcoming trend. Hopefully they can hang on for the ride.


...


Sources:

http://www.myspace.com/
http://www.bnet.com/blog/technology-business/myspace-vs-facebook-the-fight-isn-8217t-over/7659
http://www.16thletter.com/2008/04/04/myspace-vs-itunes/
http://paidcontent.org/article/419-how-to-save-myspace-the-seventh-day-adventist-version/