Rampart News Update: September 2011

9/10/11

New App Can ID Complete Stranger's Facebook and Social Security No.in 60 Seconds

Google and Carnegie Mellon University have created a system capable of alarming invasions of privacy

The application's name is PittPatt and it allows a complete stranger to find your identity -- your real identity -- in under 60 seconds. Here's how it works. A client code calls the PittPatt interface with a picture it's taken. PittPatt jumps online and compares that picture to millions of images in Facebook and in Google Inc.'s (GOOG) image search, using advanced facial recognition technology. And within 60 seconds, it can identify an individual.

The technology is more than a little creepy. It seems straight out of futurist thriller flick The Minority Report, where Tom Cruise's character is assailed by advertising billboards that ID him by retinal scans. In the movie Cruise solves this problem by replacing his eyeballs. In real life it won't be that simple (hint: you might need facial modification).

PittPatt was a Carnegie Mellon University research project, which spun off into a company post 9/11. At the time, U.S. intelligence was obsessed with using advanced facial recognition to identify terrorists. So the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) poured millions into PittPatt. D...more

9/7/11

Pre-Cog Is Real – New Software Stops Crime Before It Happens | Singularity Hub

Cover of Minority Report [Blu-ray]The police officers arrived at the parking garage in downtown Santa Cruz and spotted two women behaving suspiciously. No crime had been committed, but peering through the windows of the parked cars was sketchy enough. The officers questioned the women: one had outstanding warrants; the other was in possession of illegal drugs.

What’s strange about this scenario is that no one had called the cops. In fact, the cops didn’t even know that the women would be there, just that the probability of a crime being committed at that location, at that time of day, was especially high. In one of the first cases of ‘predictive policing,’ law enforcement were able to calculate where the criminals would be and arrest them before the crime could be committed.

Oh yeah, totally “Minority Report,” absolutely “Numb3rs.” ...more

Florida studying a possible universal ID for everyone

Gov. Rick Scott is on the prowl for new ways to reduce the cost and size of government.

He has a group patrolling for duplication in law enforcement. He wants agencies to scrutinize their budgets.

And he helped create a Government Efficiency Task Force of 15 business leaders and legislators, who will suggest cuts in state spending by up to $3 billion.

Your input is welcome at floridaefficiency.com.

Now, see what you think of this cost-cutting idea:

Issue Floridians a single ID card that would hold several kinds of vital information: your driver's license, car insurance, health insurance and voter registration.

Good idea?

Yes, says Julie Jones, executive director of the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, who briefed Scott and Cabinet members on the plan in one-on-one meetings.

"This was my attempt to want to save money and create a product that's convenient for our customers," Jones said. "An individual has to carry three or four types of identification just to exist in Florida society... more

9/2/11

Real Names: Google+, Government & The Identity Ecosystem - Search Engine Watch (#SEW)

There has been a lot of speculation about why the push for real names on Facebook and now Google, with Google taking a much harder line than even Facebook, not allowing for even the simplest derivation of “nyms” (pseudonyms). Add to this the fact that Facebook and Google have both purchased facial recognition software companies and you have a puzzling picture. Why do these two need facial recognition software and real names for social media and search engine results?

Why is a company like Google taking such a hard line on something as simple as a name – even though there is no verification process for the “real name,” so ultimately this policing is currently meaningless.

Why isn’t your online “nym” as real as your “real name” if it is what you use online? After all, what's really in a name? Isn’t it just a word that tells people who you are?

Shouldn’t online “nyms” be as valid as “real names”? Well not according to Google, which is purging even real names if they sound unusual or “unreal.” ...more

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