Privacy issues are a slippery slope with Facebook as it is, but would you give up even more privacy to be recognized when you walk into a business, even if it meant you were rewarded with coupons?
Facebook’s Facedeals has debuted at several businesses in Nashville, Tennessee. It is a facial-recognition system that utilizes a camera at the doorway of a business. Walk up to the door, and the camera scans your face, uses software to match your face to your Facebook profile. It then automatically posts a check-in to your profile and sends customized discounts to your smartphone. From the Daily Mail:
Shoppers could soon be automatically recognised when they walk into a shop using a controversial new camera. Called Facedeals, the camera uses photos uploaded to Facebook to recognise people as they walk in.
A promotional video created to promote the concept shows drinkers entering a bar, and then being offered cheap drinks as they are recognised.
Facebook recently hit the headlines when it bought face.com, an Israeli firm that pioneered the use of face recognition technology online. The social networking giant uses the software to recognise people in uploaded pictures, allowing it to accurately spot friends.
This verifies your most recent photo tags and maps the biometric data of your face. The system then learns what a user looks like as more pictures are approved. This data is then used to identify you in the real world.
As much as I love discounts and coupons, having to check-in to get them is a deal-breaker for me. And again, for me, taking recognition technology to this level, even as an opt-in technology, is over the line.
I have never understood the allure of the “check-in” at businesses as it is, even for discounts. I realize Foursquare and the like are extremely popular with many people, but to me, posting that I’ve “checked in” at a restaurant would be like posting a big sign to the world that says “I’m not home right now.” Checking in from a vacation destination screams that even louder to the world — “Not only am I not home, I’m thousands of miles away from my home!”
Lest you think I’m just paranoid, there have been numerous cases in the media of people’s homes being robbed after they posted on Facebook that they were somewhere other than home — in this case, a woman was robbed after posting that she was attending a concert. A Facebook “friend” of hers saw the update, phoned the venue to make sure the concert had started, then robbed her home 35 minutes later. In this case, another family’s home was robbed in July after they posted about a pre-vacation party they were having. Once they went on vacation, their home was robbed by three of their Facebook “friends.” In New Hampshire, a ring of burglars robbed 50 homes in one month based on social media status updates noting that the occupants were not home. And, the website www.pleaserobme.com once aggregated publicly posted Foursquare and Twitter data as “new opportunities” for burglars. Now the site is devoted to warning web users against sharing too much location info.
A British news report notes that four out of five convicted burglars surveyed last year stated they used social media sites to target victims:
“One of the convicted burglars interviewed, Richard Taylor, said: “We’re living in the age of the digital criminal and people are taking advantage of social media to access information about would-be victims. We’ll tell them even when we’re going away on holidays. We will let them know that we’re not in. We’re inviting them round to our house.”
A world in which we’re automatically being “checked in” as we roam around town, shopping and dining, isn’t exciting to me — it’s quite disturbing.
Photos of Facedeals from The Daily Mail
Patch says
You know how also, hotels don’t disclose who their guests are. A reason for this, is say a woman is leaving her husband or boyfriend who is abusive, and wants to feel safe somewhere. The management doesn’t want the angry ex-spouse to stalk and kill the girlfriend. This is an extreme scenerio, but still, this face tracker business, as mentioned in your article is a very very slippery slope.. It really unhinges the 4th Amendment. It way too creepy.
jen120976 says
Wow! I remember seeing this on Minority Report ten years ago thinking, “Yeah right! Like that could ever happen!” I guess what was once considered science fiction is now becoming reality. It’s a little scary.
christina23 says
Isn’t really much else to say except I want nothing to do with it whatsoever.
VJB says
I never post where I am so why would I want an app to post it for me. I personally know someone who went on vacation and posted pictures throughout her entire vacation and the places she was going. So it was no surprise to me when she posted that her house was robbed while she was gone! Seriously she should have just left the door open. People are too open with information on FB and allowing people into their daily lives and have
no clue who these people really are.
While I love coupons this i will not do.
SouthernReverie says
I have been using my husband’s Facebook account, which was set up with minimum info, to get coupons. A couple of months ago, Facebook demanded that I give them my cell phone number for security reasons. I refused, and they locked me out of the account. I checked again last week to see if they might have given up on this request, but they have doubled down. They have declared my husband’s account is a fake account (since I wouldn’t divulge my cell phone number), and, now I can’t log onto Facebook unless I upload my husband’s picture ID showing his birthdate. NO WAY! Now I read this about face recognition technology. Kinda makes you wonder….
TeeKay1972 says
I am always calling out my nieces and nephews out on things they should not post (surprised they have not unfriended me).
Twice this week alone I had to say something to my niece and sister-in-law My niece is 12 (which I feel is TOO young for Facebook but I am not her parent). Monday she posted a comment griping about one of her teachers by name and asking friends to LIKE if they were upset they had this teacher – had to point out that Teachers read facebook too and probably that would not be the best way to start out the new school year….
She thought I was being ridiculous about the teacher comment and on Thursday one of her friends got kicked off the cheerleading team. why Because she posted a comment calling the coach something that rhymes with witch. and even though she deleted it somebody who was her “friend” had already printed it. They then put it anonymously in the teacher’s inbox. The coach and principal determined it was within the school’s anti-bullying policy…
A few days later she posted “OMG soooo cool my parents left me home alone for the first time ever!” now her parents have told her time and time again about posting that stuff and specifically said no facebook while they were out.
Well we were with her parents when I happened to see that status on facebook pop up. so I showed her mom (Yep I am mean). They decided to teach her a lesson. When we were driving home she had my husband call the house and really creepy voice say “I saw on Facebook you are home alone. I will be there in five minutes” I am not sure if they told her yet. But I think that fear and her week being grounded from Facebook will teach her a lesson.