If you’re on any social network, you’ve likely seen friends posting side-by-side pictures comparing themselves now vs. ten years ago.
It’s fun. But the viral 10-Year Challenge making the rounds on social media could also pose a security risk to participants.
Privacy experts warn that data mined from the 10-Year Challenge could be used by tech companies to train AI-driven facial recognition algorithms — for better and for worse.
Amanda Morris and Lulu Garcia-Navarro Collaborated on this report published by WGBH News:
In an interview with NPR’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro, (Tech consultant Kate) O’Neill offered varying scenarios — some good, some bad — of what could happen if companies are able to utilize these algorithms for things like age recognition and progression.
First, the good. O’Neill speculated that facial recognition technology with age progression capabilities could help find missing kids, even after many years pass. She points out that facial recognition technology has already helped track down missing children — including in India, where police identified thousands of kids in just a few days using facial recognition.
Now, the bad news. According to O’Neill, it’s possible that data mined from the 10-Year Challenge could be used against us. She said it’s possible age progression recognition technology would be used in health care and health insurance assessments. That may sound beneficial, but writing in Wired, O’Neill pointed out, “For example, if you seem to be aging faster than your cohorts, perhaps you’re not a very good insurance risk. You may pay more or be denied coverage.”
She argued that the negative ramifications of sharing our data is a very real possibility, pointing to past incidents — such as when data for as many as 87 million Facebook users was “improperly shared” with Cambridge Analytica, a data analytics firm used by the Trump campaign in 2016.
