TikTok account is using facial recognition to dox random people | Hacker News Reader

TikTok account is using facial recognition to dox random people

404media.co

33 pointsskilled12 comments

My phone number is adjacent to one in a popular meme that asks users to harass the target. The meme periodically goes viral on major platforms and I will receive thousands of calls and texts from people who get the target number wrong.

TikTok is the absolute worst in taking these down as a form of harassment. If I don’t escalate via an employee contact they won’t do anything.

> 404 Media is not naming the account because TikTok has decided to not remove it from the platform. TikTok told me the account does not violate its policies; one expert I spoke to said TikTok should reevaluate that position.

One expert in what??? Expert in facial recognition technology? Expert in TikTok's terms of service? Expert in social media? Expert in having opinions which support the article?

Why would anyone be more or less qualified than anyone else to make that statement? It's almost like the author is just injecting their opinion saying it comes from an expert to give it weight...

I realize this seems nitpicky, but it's emblematic of what a poorly written article this is. Unsurprising given the source, though.

In the media it usually refers to someone who they agree with that is losely related to the field in question.

Probably a self-titled "TikTok Brand Influencer Cultivation Experience Consultant" or the like

A viral TikTok account is doxing ordinary and otherwise anonymous people on the internet using off-the-shelf facial recognition technology, creating content and growing a following by taking advantage of a fundamental new truth: privacy is now essentially dead in public spaces.

The TikTok account, conversations with victims, and TikTok’s own lack of action on the account show that access to facial recognition technology, combined with a cultural belief that anything public is fair game to exploit for clout, now means that all it takes is one random person on the internet to target you and lead a crowd in your direction.

I don't understand this. According to the article random people are identified by their social media profiles. Haven't they doxxed themselves?

I presume it's using sites like facecheck.id which have an index on all social media, and provide a reverse face search into that index. This means even people who change their FB name to something random, for privacy reasons, can be found. So no, I'd say the victims are not doxxing themselves.

They've posted the images in public. It's not reasonable to expect privacy.

Nothing about this is particular to TikTok itself. The real technology being used is PimEyes, but I guess that's not as clickbait worthy.

I didn't get the impression they were targeting TikTok as a platform, that's just where this happens to be occurring (statistically so, given the popularity of TikTok). I definitely got the impression the author was focusing on the technology itself, and how trivially accessible it is. PimEyes is actually less accessible than facecheck.id because PimEyes doesnt index social media and has a strong paywall. facecheck.id does not have those guards.

Edit: They were targeting TikTok somewhat in the platform's refusal to moderate this type of content, which I think is a fair criticism and known to be somewhat unique to TikTok. (None of the platforms have perfect moderation but TikTok's is notoriously inconsistent and robotic)

If you're going to put that much information out in public, isn't it somewhat expected that your information could easily be found.

Some companies insist on public "team" photos for their online presence. In other cases, laws require you to disclose your name and address for online presences like Germany's infamous Impressumspflicht.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com