General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNSA Is Collecting Gazillions Of Faces From Websites
Silly gooses, you thought the NSA only wanted to capture your personal communications.
NY Times:
The spy agencys reliance on facial recognition technology has grown significantly over the last four years as the agency has turned to new software to exploit the flood of images included in emails, text messages, social media, videoconferences and other communications, the N.S.A. documents reveal. Agency officials believe that technological advances could revolutionize the way that the N.S.A. finds intelligence targets around the world, the documents show. The agencys ambitions for this highly sensitive ability and the scale of its effort have not previously been disclosed.
The agency intercepts millions of images per day including about 55,000 facial recognition quality images which translate into tremendous untapped potential, according to 2011 documents obtained from the former agency contractor Edward J. Snowden. While once focused on written and oral communications, the N.S.A. now considers facial images, fingerprints and other identifiers just as important to its mission of tracking suspected terrorists and other intelligence targets, the documents show.
More: Crooks and Liars
Electric Monk
(13,869 posts)JEFF9K
(1,935 posts)George II
(67,782 posts)840high
(17,196 posts)randome
(34,845 posts)[hr][font color="blue"][center]"The whole world is a circus if you know how to look at it."
Tony Randall, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964)[/center][/font][hr]
klook
(12,134 posts)so nothing to worry about, I'm sure.
GoneFishin
(5,217 posts)Arugula Latte
(50,566 posts)supposedly to "protect" us from terrorists, yet the far greater danger is posed to us all by unhinged angry home-grown white guys with guns, and they don't ever seem to do anything about that.
GoneFishin
(5,217 posts)resources to stop and solve non-fictional crimes the usual way.
Plus, Booga! Booga!
tclambert
(11,080 posts)Guy Fawkes masks as an alternative.
TrollBuster9090
(5,953 posts)Locrian
(4,522 posts)>>The agency intercepts millions of images per day including about 55,000 facial recognition quality images
The NSA looks at a lot of porn.....
McCamy Taylor
(19,240 posts)Thanks to their new two way technology. By the time he is 18 they will know whether he is gay, straight or bi, what color hair he likes, what kind of car he likes, which party he favors, whether he is an ass man or a tit man---I'd be more afraid of Bill Gates than of the NSA.
Zorra
(27,670 posts)TrollBuster9090
(5,953 posts)Each is a double edged sword.
1. Private businesses collect ALL kinds of information on my, and track what I'm doing. Far more than the Government does, on average, and far more often. The flip side is that private business can't use that information to charge me with crimes.
2. Government surveillance is at least (in theory) democratically accountable, because WE get to elect the people who oversee the intel-gathering agencies. They collect less information, and at least a FEW people care whether this is appropriate or not; and have the power to do SOMETHING about it (no matter how small) if they feel it isn't. The flip side is that whatever information they still DO collect about me, they can use against me, bringing with it the power and authority of the state.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)Government surveillance of law-abiding people is antithetical to democracy. The two cannot coexist. Impossible. The minute you are under surveillance you are not free.
That goes for the private surveillance too, but you can avoid private surveillance more readily. I, for instance, am not on Facebook. The loss of privacy if you are on Facebook is obvious. Same for a website like Linked In. That goes for other similar websites.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)I can't believe that President Obama wants his daughters and future grandchildren to grow up in a world in which facial recognition technology is ubiquitous. This is just one more blow to freedom.
We will all be secure but completely subservient to the authority of the state and the wealthy and the corporations. We will be like babies bound in their swaddling clothes. And we will never grow out of those tightly bound cloths.
This makes us all prisoners if the government wishes it.
Guys! This is really bad news.
marions ghost
(19,841 posts)That's the truth.
Yes--they see themselves as the all-seeing parents, the deciders of our fate. Quite a power trip.
"You don't need to know" is their motto. A big insult to freedom and democracy, treating your fellow humans with disdain instead of respect.