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Thread. When architect & geolocation wiz @alisonkilling messaged me saying it was possible to identify pedestrians' real names and track their paths through city streets using public Instagram stories, I couldn't believe it. So we set out to do it. buzzfeednews.com/article/meghar…
@alisonkilling Turns out it was scarily easy to do. Here's how we did it. We matched Insta stories from Times Square to streaming video feeds put up by tourism company EarthCam. Using just 1 HOUR of footage, we IDed names, addresses, social media etc. of 6 people & tracked their movements.
@alisonkilling Then we sent the wonderful @HayesBrown to Times Square on a sweltering summer afternoon and had him be our guinea pig so we could show you exactly what we did. Click through to the story to see. Some takeaways...
@alisonkilling @HayesBrown We used no special analytics tools like facial recognition. Because of the growing the number of CCTV cameras in cities — & because of the ever better quality of the images they record — anyone could do what we did. Face rec is only one form of urban surveillance to worry about.
@alisonkilling @HayesBrown You might think if you don't post Instagram stories publicly, you've got nothing to worry about. But that doesn't stop you from appearing in someone else's story.
@alisonkilling @HayesBrown .@farbandish
sums it up: “When you have multiple sources of data joined together, you have the ability to track specific people around the city ... This is something that a journalist can do, and that places like Palantir and the FBI can do in a heartbeat.”
sums it up: “When you have multiple sources of data joined together, you have the ability to track specific people around the city ... This is something that a journalist can do, and that places like Palantir and the FBI can do in a heartbeat.”
@alisonkilling @HayesBrown @farbandish We often think of facial recognition technology in the context of law enforcement using it. But when high res images of you are so readily available, there's no barrier to anyone using it to track you, from ad companies to insurance giants.
Many privacy activists say video footage of public spaces — and the analytics technologies that can be used with them — is now so ubiquitous that simply moving in these spaces is tantamount to being searched without your consent, and without suspicion you've done anything wrong
.@CahnLawNY points to SCOTUS decision on Carpenter v. United States, which found police need a warrant to track people’s historical locations w cell tower data. “If it’s unconstitutional to track me using my phone, it should be just as unconstitutional to track me using my face."
EarthCam posts live feeds of tourist spots like Times Square: earthcam.com/cams/newyork/t… They say it helps people check out cool locations they might not be able to access. But they told us they also keep the footage to "make our tech smarter."
“We have ... trillions of images at this point," says EarthCam's Lisa Kelly, adding that they've held on to some footage since 1996. "Is it showing people who are maybe unaware? Possibly. But we’re also in a time where everyone has cameras and anybody can end up anywhere.”
EarthCam sees its future in analytics. "[Our cameras] need to be high resolution to provide best data analytics," Kelly says. There's no law preventing them or any company from 1) holding onto images of you or 2) filming you in public without asking for your consent
Here's what Instagram said: "Much like any photo posted publicly to the internet, there’s a risk others will use it without permission, in unintended ways. It’s a leap to suggest Instagram should privatize the behaviors of people who choose to share their content with the world."
Huge thanks to my brilliant friend
@alisonkilling and colleagues @HayesBrown and @jsvine and hope you will check out this project and let us know what you think!
@alisonkilling and colleagues @HayesBrown and @jsvine and hope you will check out this project and let us know what you think!
@alisonkilling @HayesBrown @jsvine Addendum: I managed to screw up the thread so deleted and re-wrote half of it so it's all together now! Thanks for your endurance dear followers.
