“There’s a soon-to-be-released app that identifies strangers by using a creepshot a user uploads of them, to further enable your cyberstalking ways,” Jordan Valinsky reports for Betabeat. “This latest advancement in technology is an app called NameTag. It works by users uploading a snapshot of a person, where it’s then scanned and compared to publicly available social media accounts and dating website profiles. It also scans criminal databases, like the National Sex Offender Registry, to identify pervs.”
“What results is a detailed dossier of your subject, allowing you to commence your private browser-backed creeping,” Valinsky reports. “Android and iPhone users will have access to it, but Google Glass has banned facial recognition apps from its store. The app’s developer, Kevin Alan Tussy, notes that jail-broken Glass devices can use it if you are talented enough to slyly wink to take pictures of your future crush.”
Read more in the full article here.
“The app seems to cross some pretty serious privacy boundaries,” Michelle Starr reports for CNET. “Generally speaking, people like to choose who they identify themselves to, and having your online information freely available to anyone who sees you in public seems an uncomfortable prospect.”
FacialNetwork’s Kevin Alan Tussy “has sought to allay privacy fears, but his explanation does little,” Starr reports. “‘People will soon be able to login to www.NameTag.ws and choose whether or not they want their name and information displayed to others,” he said. “It’s not about invading anyone’s privacy; it’s about connecting people that want to be connected. We will even allow users to have one profile that is seen during business hours and another that is only seen in social situations.'”
“It’s a little unclear, but what that seems to indicate to us is that, if you want to keep your privacy — and your option to identify yourself — intact, you’ll need to create a NameTag profile — opt-out, not opt-in,” Starr reports. “It remains to be seen whether Google will change its mind on facial recognition apps for Glass before NameTag hits the market.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Creepy. King Creepster Schmidt must love this app.
Also, there already is an unrelated NameTag app (an aid to help you remember people’s names) in Apple’s App Store, so, at the very least, they’re going to have to work on the name.