Picture perfect?
Google is reportedly working on a cunning app that lets users take a picture of a person's face and then use it to access their personal information, according to one employee.
Google's engineering director for image-recognition development - Hartmut Neven - told CNN that people have to ‘opt in' and agree to give the firm permission to access their pictures and Google Profile information (which includes name, phone number and email address) in order to be identified by the app, which is not available to the public at the moment.
Obviously this news will still irk many privacy protestors, especially as Google has apparently not confirmed what profile information the app would make available to users.
Neven reportedly said: "We recognize that Google has to be extra careful when it comes to these [privacy] issues. Face recognition we will bring out once we have acceptable privacy models in place."
However, Google has apparently not revealed when the app will be released and even if the technology will be rolled out as a separate application for smartphones as it could be incorporated into another tool, like Google's image search engine.
And therein lies the rub. According to Mark Milian, the CNN reporter's Twitter page, Google's PR people are making a big effort to put a lid on the story the key facts are under depute- namely whether a phone app is being developed or not.
Milian tweeted: "Google PR apparently went on smear campaign against me - saying article based on "inventions of the reporter" - before raising issues w/ me."
And then: "Google is arguing semantics. The story is accurate, but we are reviewing a Google spokesman's concerns."
Google has apparently had image recognition technology for years and it could be added to match publicly available photos on networks and sites like Flickr to a person's name immediately; "That we could do today," Neven reportedly said.
It appears that privacy concerns are holding Google back, rather than the technology itself. "People are asking for it all the time, but as an established company like Google, you have to be way more conservative than a little startup that has nothing to lose. Technically, we can pretty much do all of these things," Neven told CNN.
Critics of the search giant will no doubt point to past projects that Google has incurred the wrath of privacy protestors. It's most public privacy gap so far is arguably when its Street View cars ‘accidently' gathered consumers' unsecured Wi-Fi data.
Experts have reportedly noted that if Google did make its image recognition technology available, its user policies could have to be straightforward and perfectly clear to avoid legal clashes.
Karen North, director of a University of Southern California and a privacy expert told CNN: "Online, people don't think about the privacy concerns; they think about the fun activities they're doing. They're going to have to figure out a way where people who like the ease and fun of some of these technologies ... online don't feel burned at any given point. Because once they feel burned, they'll opt out."
However, Google is obviously treading carefully in the facial recognition area and Neven reportedly said that lots of people are "rightfully scared" of such technology.
He apparently added: "In particular, women say, 'Oh my God. Imagine this guy takes a picture of me in a bar, and then he knows my address just because somewhere on the Web there is an association of my address with my photo.' That's a scary thought. So I think there is merit in finding a good route that makes the power of this technology available in a good way."
Joined by a Google spokesman, the concept was reportedly described as ‘conservative' as far as privacy is concerned. The spokesman told CNN: "I think we are taking a sort of cautious route with this. It's a sensitive area, and it's kind of a subjective call on how you would do it."
