A viral TikTok account is doxing ordinary and otherwise anonymous people on the internet using off-the-shelf facial recognition technology, creating content and growing a following by taking advantage of a fundamental new truth: privacy is now essentially dead in public spaces.
That whole “no expectation of privacy in public spaces” thing shouldn’t be limitless. Ideally it should be closer to the number of people you expect to be present in that public space. People can take photos, record their day, and whatever else they want, but there should be limits around what they can do with the content.
I don’t see any laws around this any time soon, but it just never made sense to me how you can be recorded just existing and then a few million people can see it and harass you about it.
At the very least, doxxing people like this should be illegal.
Maybe stuff like this starts getting those “I’ve got nothing to hide” people to think a little more about privacy.
Group of accounts set up webcams outside of busy public restrooms. Records people’s faces as they exit the bathroom and how long they were in there. Auto-ID’s and sends email asking as part of a public poll if they agree with the statement “If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear”
N: auto erase image and associated data
Y: auto publish bathroom exiting face and time spent in restroom to tiktok.
Let’s really get the privacy conversation started.
We can call it Operation Feardrop
No expectation of privacy in public spaces is for use like photos and videos that just record you, not track you. This isn’t no expectation of privacy, this is expect to be identified publicly, it’s definitely a step above.
I haven’t read much about the doxxing this account does, but that side seems more clear cut
The harassment though is much harder to go after, and maybe harassment is not the right word for it. You could do something very innocuous, like eating your sandwich a little weird or not having a perfect reaction to a random tiktok influencer coming up to ‘interview’ you, and now there are millions of people commenting about you and making memes of you. I don’t see what you could do other than convince Tiktok to take the video down, and even then the damage is already done.
Suddenly I’m very glad that I never uploaded any pictures of myself to any social media network ever.
My employer made us all put headshots on the company website. I’m not thrilled about that. And my partner and frienda keep posting pictures with me in them to Facebook, though I try to avoid it. It’s hard to stay hidden from the internet.
I remember my mother had a similar situation where she and a few coworkers complained about the headshots and they ultimately removed them.
It sucks that your friends upload pictures of you without consent. That’s not a nice thing to do…
Don’t want to be a douche but don’t you think someone else may have uploaded one of two? It happened to me, they used my name too.
There are two pictures I know of from my graduation, but unless you know where I stand in the group picture it’s literally impossible to spot me. My face is half-covered by someone else, which I was really upset about back then haha :D
So when the FBI does it its all part of the plan but when some guy on the internet does it everyone loses there shit
But when the FBI scans my face I know they have the best intentions /s
But seriously, this could be dangerous for a lot of people. Imagine someone’s stalker having a hold on some of this information?
Apps like tiktok/instagram etc should have a built it face blur/censor that can automatically face track every face and you can select to unblur your face. They should have this on by default
The account is @detectivespoopy if anyone else was curious
Thanks but no thanks
