Facial Recognition: Biometrics Security or Easy Profiling?

What an app may display in the future

Soon, there will be technology that will allow anyone access to your personal information just by pointing a camera at your face.

 At the upcoming Black Hat conference, researchers from Carnegie Mellon University will show how using facial recognition software can seamlessly bring up information about you. This information can even dig up criminal records and social security numbers. Utilizing cloud computing combined with facial recognition software, they will demonstrate how easy it is to retrieve information on just about anyone who has a picture of their face online.

 Some people are excited about this technology.Those proponents believe that it allows for a more foolproof security system that would only unlock devices and access to sensitive info when the correct facial metrics are met.

 This sounds straight out of Minority Report. Ads that directed at the consumer that call them by name seem really creepy to me. I don't want everyone around me to know my name. They're called 'strangers' for a reason, and I like to keep it that way. 

 Although I am for better security methods, I see this tech being used for many nefarious uses. Someone who's looking for a potential victim for fraud or theft could just scan their phone at people in a crowded square. Using augmented reality, (AR), they could focus on text that pops up next to who's in the view finder. That info could be marital status, size of household, income, scheduled meetings, and other such private information. 

 I only see one way out of this type of profiling. Masks. We all need to buy a fake facial exoskeleton that we use while we're outside, just to make sure no one gets our personal info. That or we could use a time machine and make sure that no pictures whatsoever of our face get put on the web. Which of those seem easier?

 Find the masks here. Find the time machine here.