Comment by gubatron | Hacker News Reader

Comment by gubatron | Hacker News Reader

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There's never been a better time to be a creepy stalker.

Back in the beginning when Facebook wasn't stalker friendly I remember wanting to have auto tagging based on facial recognition. Now... now I'm afraid that I'll get tagged by other people in facebook (even though I'm not part of it anymore) and facebook will of course make money by selling all the facial patterns to third parties.

The applications of facial recognition make my mind fly, they remind me of Minority Report and marketers recognizing you wherever you go, it makes me think of even more divorces based on far more evidence that will be automatically available on social networks.

I think I'll start wearing some make-up a few months from now, or turn my face away every time I see a camera. The end of anonymity is near.

If you're really concerned, the solution is simple. Don't tell your friends the same name that you tell the government. If a bunch of people tag you as "John Smith" on Facebook, and "Bill Smitthers" is the person that is behind on his back taxes, face recognition with data bought from Facebook is not going to find you.

Why'd you assume that the government was his (only) concern?

s/government/whatever/g;

When you register at school, you're required to use your real name. It will always come up, one way or another.

So?

BTW - In the US, there's no law mandating a unique "real name".

True—your name is whatever you get people to call you, legally, at least in some states—but the very important caveat is that if you change your name or use an alias for purposes of fraud, either to defraud someone else or to defraud the gov't, that's still illegal. So for instance, it's perfectly legal for me to write my name as "Don" even though my SS card says "Donald", but then, I'm writing my actual SS# on my taxes (and paying them!), so there's no fraud.

Replying late. In Italy, or Albania, your name is registered after your gov documents. You can use a "mouth" different name with your friends, but since the register of the class is open and stays always on the room, everyone could read it.

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