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.

  • Otter@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • NaN@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 year ago

      Maybe stuff like this starts getting those “I’ve got nothing to hide” people to think a little more about privacy.

      • Synnr@sopuli.xyz
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        1 year ago

        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

      • Otter@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        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.