'Facebook and Face Recognition: Kinda Cool, Kinda Creepy' by Anna Bunn in (2013) 25(1)
Bond Law Review 35 comments
Facebook has recently been subject to scrutiny by privacy regulators in Europe, as well as by the US Federal Trade Commission, in relation to the introduction of its 'tag suggest' feature. This feature uses face recognition technology to create a biometric template of users' faces, and has been introduced to Facebook users as a default (opt-out) setting. One outcome of the recent scrutiny has been the temporary deactivation of the tag suggest feature. However, there is every indication that Facebook intends to re-introduce the feature in the not too distant future. This article canvasses some of the privacy implications of face recognition technology, particularly as it is used by Facebook, and in the private sector generally. Legal implications of Facebook's use of biometric templates and the generation and use of biometric information are considered by reference to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) as recently amended by the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012 (Cth). In particular, the threshold issue of the application of Australia's federal information privacy laws to overseas organisations that have no presence in Australia and do not have servers in the country is considered.
The
Age has meanwhile announced that "Yes, Big Brother is watching … He's looking at you from billboards and he knows your age, sex and a lot more too".
Any fears you might have that Big Brother is watching you can now be officially confirmed. Come March, he will be.
Next month the advertising industry will be employing new technology known as Anonymous Biometric and Objects Data Sensors (ABODS). Put simply, sensor cameras are placed behind or close to the screen frame of a digital billboard, biometrically sizing you up as you walk past.
ABODS can tell age, gender and colour and also the number of people in front of a digital screen. This is advertising gold.
It will be able to tell your age range, sex and the colour of your clothes. Armed with this information, it will throw the ads at you that best fit your demographic.
If an advertiser wants to target a 20-something female, the first suitable passer-by will be served up an appropriately aligned ad. ABODS has already been trialled in a Melbourne shopping centre and deemed a success. ...
ABODS can tell age, gender and colour and also the number of people in front of a digital screen. It can pinpoint the range of ages present at a certain time of day, where those ages tend to congregate, which shops they favour and whether most of the people in that age group prefer a particular colour. This is advertising gold.
Muir hastens to add: “What we do is totally anonymous – we take no record of any personal info – the sensors are very broad and can only capture age range and gender, but no personal information.
“There's no way we can recall the data of any personal connection to anyone and a person's image is never recorded.” ...
Despite the high-brow technology it is not hard to see some weaknesses in the methodology. If, say, a 70-year-old woman approaches the screen at the same time as a 15-year-old male – what ad is thrown up? Muir admits this was one of the most important difficulties the AdBidx team encountered.
“We worked out that this would be done on a system of priority,” he says. “It might not target the elderly lady because it is looking for the right person for which to showcase a particular ad.”
