Face Recognition App “FindFace” is a Privacy Nightmare

Ninja Bits: The new android application “FindFace’’ can also identify a face inside of a large crowd.

The new app “FindFace” allows you to snap a picture of anyone walking down the street. You can then connect them with their online presence of a social networks. This also covers government sites. Even within large crowds, FindFace has a 70% reliability.

This application has rapidly grown into becoming a very popular app, already gaining more than 500,000 downloads since its release. The Guardian reports that the applications servers have already processed just over 3 million requests, in which during that time frame, FindFace has matched users using a VKontakte’s database – a very popular Russian social network, as well as the Baltic nations.

Trinity Digital, which is the Application Developer company behind the app, states that they are building their database to provide future users with the ability to instantly know anyone that is walking down the street, as well as their interests. This application is also to functionally work on extremely crowded subway stations, as well as other public places.

However, unlike any of the other face recognition technology on the market, their algorithm allows for quick searches inside a database that consists of nearly 1 billion photographs in large data sets. If you calculate it, three million searches inside this  database that holds nearly one billion photographs. This comes to trillions of comparisons on all four of their normal servers. With an algorithm like this, you are able to search through roughly a billion photographs in just under a second, as compared to a normal computer.

For those who enjoy their privacy, this comes as unsettling news, to say the least. This can also be used for local law enforcement and other governing authorities to aid in surveillance. Privacy activist’s protest that the new application FindFace has the full potential of completely destroying any public anonymity, thus putting a lot of people at risk. However, it still remains unclear as to whether or not FindFace remains just a casual face recognition app, or can be utilized for more sinister things to come.

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Sources: TechWorm, Google Play Market.

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