We’re fortunate at Team Expansion to have an I.T. guy that tries to keep us informed about trends and futures. He recently pointed me to this article by a prof at Carnegie Mellon.
(Note: The above link will ‘wrap’ in the emailed version of Brigada Today. If you have trouble reassembling it, just go to the online version and find this item, then click on the link above.)
The bottom line of this article, and the research behind it, is that facial recognition software, combined with internet search capabilities, is becoming sophisticated and fast enough to begin affecting the way we post our picture on such sites as Facebook and LinkedIn. How long will it be before unfriendly governments begin using these techniques for screening potential visitors to their borders? I’m not sure — 20 years? 10 years? next year? Either way, it has the potential of affecting all those who seek to remain low-key and “under the radar.”
How will *your* agency or church respond to this kind of technology? Should you, for example, ask potential workers to remove all pictures and tagging on Facebook? Should you ask that no online pictures be posted on any site whatsoever? The time we require to react to these and other, similar questions is time lost to respond in a proactive way. Please give your opinion (anonymously or under an assumed name if you desire) in the Comment box below. Thanks.
Doug
Just wear sunglasses and make a funny face whenever your picture is being taken.
Facial recognition is already tagging me and my friends in Facebo ok, and surely on major airports and federal buildings. A recent article discusses fingerprint recognition from over six feet away. The answer may be simple: obey Jesus, live honorably, pay some high prices when you fall in the hands of unjust and dishonorable people. Be assured that structures of sin will use knowledge and power against people and against Gods purposes. And they ultimately will fail to stop our redemptive God and his sacrificial sons and daughters.