Researchers in the famous Carnegie Mellon University have built a system that is capable to combines facial recognition technology with the data taken from social networking websites like dating sites, forums, Facebook and Google+ and also data from other sources like Paypal and Ebay which raises new privacy concerns in the technology field. The users of this system will be able to identify any random people using the face recognition feature and then catch the personal information about them, where in some cases, the researchers managed to get the stranger’s Identity Card number.
What is more frightening about this system is that they did not use data that is locked away from the users, all the data that the system obtained is readily available for the end users and all they need is collect and compile them by using this system. The result from the experiments made is pretty convincing and accurate enough, and to make things worse is this system did not need to be run on a high-performance supercomputer; all it need is a smartphone with an Internet connection.
This should be an eye-opener for those who are concerned about the safety of their personal information in the World Wide Web because however small or insignificant the personal details that we mention in our dating site and Facebook profiles, all of them can be used as an entrance to identity theft and privacy breaches. This system is capable to compile and sort all of your personal information from various websites and it can be operated on a smartphone. If a hacker is capable to create a smartphone application for this purpose, your personal information will surely be at risk and your life can also be in danger.
In this era where technology of yesterday easily being surpassed by today’s technology, we must be more concerned about what we post or share online. This is why Google+ really put security in the top priority by implementing the Circles feature and they also implement other features that put the Google+ user’s in a controlled and secured surroundings. Experts from the Carnegie Mellon University has suggested that if you want to let your online profiles to be accessible by everyone on the web, a lot of people will find out how you live your life and this will affect your life badly. With the merge of the face recognition software, this will bring privacy intrusion to a whole new extreme.