Photographer Finds Random People He Snaps On The Subway Using Facial Recognition

Source: http://earthables.com/facial-recognition/



Russian photographer Egor Tsvetkov kept a low profile as he took photos of random strangers he had never met before. Over the course of 6 weeks he captured some 100 photos of commuters in St. Petersburg. He then used a facial recognition app called FindFace to see if he could locate the social media profiles of each person he photographed.

He used open source software to scan over 55 million users on VKontakte, Russia’s largest social media network. Even though many of the candid photos look nothing like the polished pics on social media, the app was able to connect the dots. Tsvetkov successfully paired 70% of his subjects with their real social media profiles.

His frighteningly revealing project is titled, “Your Face is Big Data.” Clearly, it’s easier than ever for a complete stranger to find you online, and they don't even need to know your name. All they have to do is get a picture of you, which is pretty scary if you think about it.

Tsvetkov said, “My project is a clear illustration of the future that awaits us if we continue to disclose as much about ourselves on the Internet as we do now.”



We use social media to share everything, but do you really want a complete stranger from the subway, a nightclub or anywhere else to find you online? And if they do, is your profile set to private, or is it public with geotags sharing your location throughout the day? Think about it, there are crazy people out there!











Does this project make you second-guess your public social media profiles? Or at least what you share publicly?