The online search giant even goes so far as to offer facial recognition. And we knew this was coming, right?
CNN reports that Google is preparing a mobile application that will use facial recognition technology to allow the use of photos on the phone as a way to identify people. The application will work as a form of “visual search”, including names and email addresses in its results.
As expected, privacy advocates were quick to scrutinize all the dangers of such an application. In response, Google says that such a service can only operate on an “opt in” basis, meaning that users will have to agree to their photos and data being used by the application.
The idea is not new, so there are rumors that Facebook is preparing something similar to automatically identify photos uploaded by users. While in the case of Facebook this feature would only be available to users of this social network, in the case of Google the matter would be more serious, as the company's application would scour every corner of the web, namely photo sharing sites such as Flickr and Picasa.
The question remains: is this a natural and expected development or, on the other hand, will it pose a serious threat to privacy on the web?