I always thought that the saying “With fame, comes fortune” to hold true, until I realized that fame or even recognition is not always that fortunate. Until now, I had believed that celebrities were the only ones that had a lack of privacy, but now a days are they really the only ones that fall victim to this?
Social media has drastically changed the way people collect information. Almost anything can be found online by a simple click of the mouse. Normally when we search for the latest news trends, we are used to seeing celebrities' life being exposed by paparazzi with having their pictures all over the internet, but now it’s not only celebrities who are being invaded. Facial recognition has tapped into the online world, considerably. Anyone who is anyone can easily snap a picture of you these days and link this image to any social media site that you are currently connected to. And this can have a hazardous effect on all of us if abused negatively. Think about it? Let’s say one day you get yourself into a little fender-bender and the person you hit is having a not-so-good day. After apologizing a million times and offering yourself to pay for the little damage that you have caused, it’s still not enough. On impulse, this person grabs their smart phone and starts snapping pictures of the damage, your license plate, and even you. This tiny gesture can take a turn for the worse if the “victim” decided to upload your picture on a facial recognition site like Google Goggles and start an online frenzy on you. This can potentially worsen if your attacker even starts stalking you. It is a scary thought when people can easily invade your privacy. Facial recognition is something that we have seen and heard of only in movies (or for government official use, of course) but now it is becoming so common and easy for just about anyone to do. Unfortunately there’s really no way to protect ourselves from facial recognition programs. Once we are linked to social media sites and upload pictures of ourselves, there’s really no way to avoid someone from invading your privacy. All we can do is share as little information as possible and protect your privacy as much as possible.
As for when you are offline, well...be cautious of your surroundings, because you just never know.
Privacy is key,
Natasha Martinez
