Google Patents Software To Identify Real-World Objects In Videos 150
hypnosec writes "Google has been recently granted a patent that could not only improve online search, but also will possibly give the search engine giant an awful lot of information about the world. Google wants to scan and analyze the content within videos (YouTube videos, most probably) and look for objects in the real world, identify them, and make a catalogue out of those objects. The patent describes Google's technology of scanning a video, picking out landmarks, objects and context; and subsequent tagging and categorization."
Adds reader MojoKid: "The privacy implications of such an automated system are enormous. Facebook's own automatic facial recognition software was highly controversial when it debuted, and what Google has now patented puts Facebook to shame. The larger question, unaddressed in this patent, is whether we want our individual personal data to be tagged, filed, and logged without permission or choice."
Re:Yes (and law on questions at summaries broken). (Score:5, Interesting)
How is a video uploaded to youtube 'individual personal data"?.
It can be non-private for the uploader, but private for other people in the video. You don't always know when you are in a video, and even if do you often cannot prevent it from being uploaded.
Re:Who would be the lesser of two evils? (Score:2, Interesting)
Personally I would trust Google to consider user rights a little bit more, but the exploitation of such a system is damn scary.
I'd be interested to hear your reasoning behind that.
Google still have WiFi data that they collected when creating street view. Google and privacy aren't too things that go too well together, the overall impression I have is that they don't care about it at all.