Facial Recognition (and Identity Theft) Made Easy

Today, Facial Recognition scans require specialized tools. But the time may be near when anyone with a webcam can obtain your name, birth date and Social Security Number.

Alessandro Acquisti (the same Carnegie Mellon professor who figured out how to reverse engineer your Social Security number) has developed a method for identifying individuals with only a webcam image.
Acquisti's process goes something like this:

• Take a webcam photo of the subject;
• Use a facial recognition tool called PittPatt (developed by Carnegie Mellon researchers) to match the webcam image to a Facebook profile image;
• Using the profile information posted on Facebook and the professor's previously developed SSN formula, divine the subject's Social Security Number.

Don't have a Facebook profile? That's ok, because a tagged image of you on someone else's page may work too.
Acquisti says that this method has "ominous implications for privacy." Facial recognition and search engine technologies are developing to the point where you may soon be able to snap a picture with your BlackBerry and instantly pull down enough information to steal an identity.
Two intersecting trends are set to challenge the very concept of privacy. The first trend is the enormous amount of personal information available online. The second trend is the ever increasing speed at which that information can be searched and analyzed.
So, short of going through life with a bag over your head, what can you do? First of all, limit the information you share online. Second, establish a Social Media Policy for your company. Third, invest in an identity protection service such as LifeLock. Finally, if all else fails, try the bag. Who knows. It may catch on.