Yeah, c'mon, have you been paying t'hell attention," or what?!"

Yeah, perhaps you did not notice that ... every time(!) you 'took a picture,' with your iPhone, your phone drew a little box around anything that vaguely looked like 'a human face?'"

Even though you might have noticed that the "Photos" app had a category called "Faces," did you ever bother to click on it?

"Well, maybe-the-hell you should!!"

Because, when-and-if you actually do this, you will discover that your iPhone has been analyzing every single picture that you ever took, for "a machine-recognizable instance of a human face." Furthermore, you will discover that it has, with rather-unerring mechanical accuracy(!), successfully sorted-out the images of "every single human person that you love," having successfully(!) identified between each of them in spite of various variations in their position with relation to your phone's camera.

So, tell me:

• Are you, "like, totally okay with that?" ...

• Hell, were you even aware of that ...?

(Yeah, didn't think so.)

- - -
"Face it, Ladies and Gentlemen ..." 1984™ is right here.

You can be quite(!) sure that "your telephone" is not "going to 'this extra effort'" (it only does this when connected to a charger ... therefore, presumably, when you are asleep ...) for nothing.

And, I am quite(!) sure, you probably had no idea, up until this time, that "your phone" might possibly be doing this.

I will also presume that you have no 'external need,' whatsoever, to rely upon a digital computer to externally identify to you 'the people within your pictures who are near-and-dear to you.')

- - -
So, if both 'you didn't know of it' and 'you can't stop it' ... then ...

... then what the hell(!) is really going on?

- - -
(Well, funny you should ask ...)

Perhaps the time has come for all of us, "in our business," to STOP and Stare.

After all, we should never, ever, forget the bitter lessons of History.

• Q: How did the Nazi's round-up the Jews in Germany?
• A: Through telephone-call records.

Did you "ever ask Apple" to identify the faces in the "family photos" that you took? No. Therefore, [i]it never occurred to you that ... in the innocent act of photographing your daughter at her birthday ... you might contribute to a database which might one day pick her face out of a crowd in Times Square on New Years' Eve ... and link her image straight back to the GPS coordinates of her bedroom in your house ... and then send all of that data to ...

... ahem.

- - -
Go ahead. "Conspiracy Theorist.™" Got it. Yeah. Uh huh ... ...

Well,

from what I can see, our modern high tech world does that a lot. We are more and more transparent and in most cases it is fine for use. We love to use Siri and Voice control, we love to use the GPS on our phones, to publish our current location on Facebook, etc. I did not know, what you have said about Apple Faces here, but neither I am surprised. Any smartphone user makes himself open to such things. If you upload photos to a social network, if you send an email or if you are downloading games and visit websites. Go and look for a flight to Australia today and for the next two or three weeks you will get respective ads on it.

It is a completely normal thing and if you really worry about that, you should not use a smartphone, probably not send emails and refrain from doing a lot of other things as well. I am fairly sure, it will get even worse than that. With the technological advancement, that is the price we have to pay.

I personally do worry about security, when it comes to sensitive information, such as my bank account, passwords, etc. I am also using privacy controls to define who can see what on Facebook, etc. (with no idea what effect it really has), but other than that, I have someone accepted, that things are what they are and that those benefits we have, come with a price.

Still, I have been changing my iPhone several months ago for an Android phone. Now, I am sure it is not much better anyways, but I prefer it by now over Apple.

Yeah, but they are doing to make money, so that makes it okay, does it not? Is that not the purest of motives in the land that Galt begot?

Well everyone does... there is no such thing as free stuff, unless it is a gift from maybe a family member (and even then you usually give something back).

I just lately entered a discussion about why or how Google can offer so much free stuff. It appears as such, but we all should be aware of the fact, that it is not. After all, Google is using our emails, search inquiries, etc. to get important information, that makes them a lot of money. The benefit from those services, they apparently offer for free, but people do not see, that we pay with it for our information.

Now, I do understand that every business need to make money, not just to pay their stuff, but also to develop and invest in new technologies. I do not agree however, that money should be the all driving reason and motivation, that comes before anything else and that makes people think everything is ok, as long as it raises money.

Then again, as I said before, we are living in a transparent world. Smartphone, Computers and the internet of things are nice and have a lot of benefits. But all that comes for a price... Now... would you prefer to look a for a local phone booth, to make a call and sent a letter by mail to wait 3 days until it arrives? Would you want to go back, to shop for hours, to find what you need? Or do you prefer your smartphone, shop online for your needs and live a comfortable and easy life? I suppose, most people would prefer things how they are, despite such things as described by the OP.

I personally need and love my smartphone and sending emails or whatsapp messages to my family abroad. I am aware of the of consequences this implies but I would not wanna change it either.

If this were 1984, you surely wouldn't be posting your doubleplusungood opinions to the internet.

Many digital cameras and smart phone camera software have an auto-focus priority mode that uses a real time face detection algorithm. It isn't facial recognition. Some cameras have smile detection too. If you enable GPS location for photos on your phone and post it online then yes it could be tracked back to your house and is nothing new.

Software already exists to market products to specific person in stores based upon facial recognition like Minority Report. These days if your in a public place then I would expect a camera and that you will be recorded.

Exactly. That's how it is... and most of us are enjoying all the good stuff... everyone runs around with their smartphone, posts in forums, plays online games... so I don't see any reason, why those same people go and complain about it.. You can't take all the good for you and expect all the bad stuff make a hold at your doorstep.

Face it... we live in a high tech world and it will get even farther.

My primary concern is that persons are quite willing to run nekkid through the internet without a thought as to what that are giving up because it's fun in the moment.

The stupid, silly aspects of the internet have become the SOMA of our time.

Well it is probably not just because of fun, but also because many people simply don't know or think something bad would never happen to them...

How many people share account or access information (be it to email, forums or whatever) online? If you ask those people if they share bank accounts, or access to their postal mail, they call you crazy and tell you of course they don't, because it is private.

Then of course, there are indeed those guys, who simply don't care because it is fun or comfortable..

I agree. Using software that helps you take better pictures easily is one thing. Social media and game apps that have access to your personal information is another.

"Oh, look, Hanzel, what a pretty house!" "Yes, Gretel, let's just go right in."

I'm old and cranky. I think persons should educate themselves about the tools they use.

Part of that education is learning to resist the Sirens' song of "just a little click'll do ya."

They should at least read the owner's manual "Quick Start." Grump, grump, grump.

Well said Mr. Bell, well said. That is exactly the way I see it.

A little addition: Reading the Terms of Service (TOS), AGBs or Privacy Statements of a website, can sometimes be very enlightening about what a website or business actually does with your information... and frankly... many times you would probably find yourself starring in disbelief.

We can still own an apple try a used eII? Other wise they likely own you fine print hello.

Hey, Hey, Hey, You're making way too much sense there. I'm always somewhat amazed (much less than I used to be) at people I know , or don't, when I ask them about their computers and what they use, 90+% of the time they're lucky if the know what version of windows they're using (The win10 thing helped with that though). when asked what they use for security I get a , "What ever came with it I guess" type answer. Seems like almost no one cares about anything as long as they can connect to interwebs, facebook, cat/dog videos, etc....

Don't do farcebook yet, but might give it a stab only because I have nieces and nephews I never get to see or talk to.

Cat/dog videos... I can neither confirm or deny that allegation at this time.

Farcebook.

I like that, I like that a lot, though I prefer "The Zuckerborg," for assimilation is their goal. And I do understand about the nieces and nephews--I have grandkids--but, really they have my email and my phone numbers and my website. It's not like I'm hiding.

I have a Farcebook account, but I stopped using it regularly a long time ago. I do log in from time to time, always in a private browser tab or window, usually to post something to a Page or Group that I'm a member of, because, if one must do outreach, one must go where the people are. But I can choose to do my outreach with care.

I try to minimize my use of Google services on principle, but, really, next to Farcebook and most everyone else, Google stands as a paragon of clean living.