Stalking complete strangers on Facebook is about to become as easy as snapping a pic thanks to a new facial recognition app.
Launching later this month, Facezam promises to be able to identify people by matching a photo to a person’s Facebook profile. If it works as well as advertised, it might be time to kiss your anonymity goodbye.
“Facezam could be the end of our anonymous societies,” said Jack Kenyon, founder of Facezam, in an interview with The Telegraph. “Users will be able to identify anyone within a matter of seconds, which means privacy will no longer exist in public society.”
No More Privacy
The app depends on Facebook profile pictures to identify people, so you could thwart the app by not using an actual picture of you for a profile pic. Or you can just delete Facebook.
Facebook allows developers to access a database of profile images to use in apps. Facezam’s software then scans the billions of profile images in seconds to find a match. The company says it has tested 10,000 images so far with 70 percent accuracy.
Although Facezam sounds like a terrible idea for every human that values privacy, Kenyon claims it could come with some positives too, like being able to identify criminals immediately. However, it also reminds us of the creepy app “Girls Around Me” which could be used to find and stalk women.
An iOS launch date of March 21st has been set, but might be delayed by Facebook. A spokesperson for Facebook said Facezam violates its privacy policies. The company says it is reaching out to the developer “to ensure they bring their app into compliance.”
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
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