Selfies

The problem with selfies, taken with apps that know who you (e.g. snapchat, instagram, etc), is this:

We are providing the big web companies with a perfect ‘learning set’ for facial recognition, aka biometrics, of individuals.

Privacy laws side, once they crack this they will know where we are and what we are doing at all times. Any camera will do.

Expect them to start selling this capability in the first instance with a positive spin. For example, they will sell your biometrics to the credit card companies so that facial recognition accompanies every online purchase. Or something like that.

Once in place though, you won’t own your own biometric data; Google and Facebook will. That is, they will own the data that you need to prove who you are.

And if you want to look at it very negatively, if they are subject to theft or a government mandate then you may not be able to enact any transaction for any purpose. Or someone else may be able to enact transactions on your behalf.

And unfortunately the parties that are creating this sort of power also have the means to influence governments and the media.

I can see this getting very messy and I am not usually negative on technology opportunities. This one worries me because competitive pressures force the parties that are trying to do this to out-compete each other in their creation and monetization of these capabilities. That is, if one doesn’t do it another will.