Mass identification of porn actresses

[Bramblethorn]

I've been saying for a while that something like this was going to happen on an automated scale:

https://twitter.com/yiqinfu/status/1133215940936650754

A Germany-based Chinese programmer said he and some friends have identified 100k porn actresses from around the world, cross-referencing faces in porn videos with social media profile pictures. The goal is to help others check whether their girlfriends ever acted in those films.

Needless to say, this is a terrible idea and will inevitably get women blackmailed and perhaps killed. Take it as a reminder that if you want to avoid having your Literotica identity linked to your RL identity, you need to be very careful about what you share - you're not just contending with current-day linking technology, but with whatever might be developed in the future.

 

[KeithD]

Where's the equality? Why aren't porn actors getting this attention as well?

 

[Blind_Justice]

Don't use social media. Problem solved.

 

[NotWise]

Needless to say, this is a terrible idea and will inevitably get women blackmailed and perhaps killed. Take it as a reminder that if you want to avoid having your Literotica identity linked to your RL identity, you need to be very careful about what you share - you're not just contending with current-day linking technology, but with whatever might be developed in the future.

It sounds like a setup for a Loving Wives story.

 

[John988]

[This content has been removed due to a copyright violation.]

 

[GroverLang]

Take it as a reminder that if you want to avoid having your Literotica identity linked to your RL identity, you need to be very careful about what you share - you're not just contending with current-day linking technology, but with whatever might be developed in the future.

I googled myself not too long ago and discovered that information ranging from my favourite YouTube videos (nothing salacious before your minds start working) was there to my accepting a cheque for a charity.

You should all try googling your name and see what comes up.

 

[NotWise]

You should all try googling your name and see what comes up.

I'd have to filter through stuff for days (at least) to get very much that's actually about me. Long ago in the baby days of Google, I came up pretty high on their listing, but that was because of my involvement in another hobby. These days, I doubt I appear. My name is fairly common.

 

[Voboy]

It sounds like a setup for a Loving Wives story.

This. FTW.

 

[GroverLang]

These days, I doubt I appear. My name is fairly common.

Unfortunately my name isn’t very common. There’s not many Napoleon Solo’s around. Truthfully my name isn’t actually very common which is why my YouTube account has a fictitious name.

 

[Hypoxia]

Don't use social media. Problem solved.

LIT is my social medium. No tweets or facebarfs or the like. Whew.

 

[SimonDoom]

This is true, but there's a countervailing trend that will result from this, which is that in the future no one will give a shit. These days, every celebrity has nude photos online. Increasingly, it's no big deal, and that might be a good thing.

As much as people profess fear of the loss of privacy, they're not willing to do anything to protect it. They certainly won't pay for it. The benefits of sharing outweigh the costs of losing privacy. Perhaps someday everyone will have a porno video of themselves online, and blackmail will be impossible.

 

[Areala-chan]

Perhaps someday everyone will have a porno video of themselves online, and blackmail will be impossible.

There's a fabulous dystopian story idea in here.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Where's the equality? Why aren't porn actors getting this attention as well?

Yup, that omission says a lot about the mindset of the people who build and use this kind of service.

Don't use social media. Problem solved.

I'm not on Facebook, but that doesn't stop other people from sharing photos of me there with my name attached, and it makes it really hard to keep in touch with my family who use it for organising everything from weddings to funerals.

 

[Bramblethorn]

As much as people profess fear of the loss of privacy, they're not willing to do anything to protect it. They certainly won't pay for it. The benefits of sharing outweigh the costs of losing privacy. Perhaps someday everyone will have a porno video of themselves online, and blackmail will be impossible.

The other thing happening there is that in five or ten years' time, it will be easy enough to fake a porno video of anybody, at which point the real ones become deniable.

For now, though, people do pay blackmail. I occasionally get a spam to the effect of "we hacked your webcam and got video of you pleasuring yourself, send us bitcoin or we email it to everybody in your address book"; it's a hoax of course, but some people are paying up or they wouldn't bother doing it.

 

[SimonDoom]

The other thing happening there is that in five or ten years' time, it will be easy enough to fake a porno video of anybody, at which point the real ones become deniable.

For now, though, people do pay blackmail. I occasionally get a spam to the effect of "we hacked your webcam and got video of you pleasuring yourself, send us bitcoin or we email it to everybody in your address book"; it's a hoax of course, but some people are paying up or they wouldn't bother doing it.

Yes. A chilling Black Mirror episode was created around this idea.

But I'm an intransigent optimist. I'm a big believer in the idea that good things we don't anticipate will happen. That's been the story of things to date. Things aren't perfect, but they tend to get better.

But here's an interesting question from an erotica point of view: if in the future most of the taboos we recognize now fall to the wayside, will erotica be as fun?

 

[Hypoxia]

But here's an interesting question from an erotica point of view: if in the future most of the taboos we recognize now fall to the wayside, will erotica be as fun?

New taboos will arise, or old ones in new clothes. Hey, it wasn't so long ago that racism and religions seemed headed for obsolescence, but their surging comebacks are a signal. Anything that CAN be used to polarize people, WILL be. It's so easy.

More perversions will be unveiled and targeted. Don't bring your tame sheep out in public. And a woman's bare ankle was steamy in the Western world a bit over a century ago. Soon, earlobes will qualify. Welcome to Hijab-a-rama.

 

[SimonDoom]

There's a fabulous dystopian story idea in here.

Dystopian, or utopian?

There are different perspectives on this.

 

[NotWise]

I've been saying for a while that something like this was going to happen on an automated scale:

Is his story actually real? I didn't follow the link.

If the programmer has been identified, then it seems to me like his liability for damages would be enormous. What I've seen of facial recognition results using random photos is very undependable. One mistaken identification could ruin him forever. Even if the identifications are accurate, he could be responsible for large damages.

And what is the motivation for doing something like that? I don't get it.

 

[Hypoxia]

Perhaps someday everyone will have a porno video of themselves online, and blackmail will be impossible.

Someday is at hand. Deepfakery abounds and grows. Still images can be animated and 3D'd. Any face or body can be attached to any pervo action. Distrust any slimy or heroic views you see of a prominent person. So you don't have your own pr0n vid yet? No matter -- it'll find you.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Is his story actually real? I didn't follow the link.

If the programmer has been identified, then it seems to me like his liability for damages would be enormous. What I've seen of facial recognition results using random photos is very undependable. One mistaken identification could ruin him forever. Even if the identifications are accurate, he could be responsible for large damages.

And what is the motivation for doing something like that? I don't get it.

AFAICT, the motivation is insecure guys who are threatened by the possibility that their girlfriend might have a previous sexual history.

I haven't seen verification of the story (doesn't help that I don't read Chinese!) but I haven't seen any reason to doubt it. The basic idea is pretty straightforward, harvest photos from social networking sites and from porn and use facial recognition to compare the two.

Like you say, current FR technology is far from perfect and I expect this will have plenty of errors, but that's not going to stop those insecure guys from using it and believing the results. Even if it was 100% accurate, it'd still be a terrible idea; people shouldn't be outed for that kind of thing.

From the thread it sounds as if he's not releasing it yet, possibly because he may have belatedly realised that there could be legal ramifications. (According to the thread I linked, he reckons it's 100% legal, I'd want a second opinion on that!) But even if he buries it, sooner or later some other asshole's going to release something like this, even if it's anonymous.

Someday is at hand. Deepfakery abounds and grows. Still images can be animated and 3D'd. Any face or body can be attached to any pervo action. Distrust any slimy or heroic views you see of a prominent person. So you don't have your own pr0n vid yet? No matter -- it'll find you.

"The future is already here, it's just not evenly distributed" - William Gibson.

If I were a political candidate, I'd be worried about deep fake videos right now. The rest of us probably have a few years' breathing space before the tech gets into the hands of the average script kiddy, but not very long.

The period in between, where it's possible to produce convincing fake videos of real people but the average person doesn't understand that it's possible... that's going to be an interesting time.

 

[ChloeTzang]

I googled myself not too long ago and discovered that information ranging from my favourite YouTube videos (nothing salacious before your minds start working) was there to my accepting a cheque for a charity.

You should all try googling your name and see what comes up.

It’s fascinating. I googled my real me and nada. I have almost no social media profile and even the real me is anonymized enough. Never used my real surname anywhere online. My Chloe Tzang is another story. Wow.

 

[Handley_Page]

Where's the equality? Why aren't porn actors getting this attention as well?

A good point.

It sounds like a setup for a Loving Wives story.

Well, a good set-up for some sort of story, anyway.

There is the very real problem of identifying the miscreant who blew the whistle. . .

 

[NotWise]

Like you say, current FR technology is far from perfect and I expect this will have plenty of errors, but that's not going to stop those insecure guys from using it and believing the results. Even if it was 100% accurate, it'd still be a terrible idea; people shouldn't be outed for that kind of thing.

From the thread it sounds as if he's not releasing it yet, possibly because he may have belatedly realised that there could be legal ramifications. (According to the thread I linked, he reckons it's 100% legal, I'd want a second opinion on that!) But even if he buries it, sooner or later some other asshole's going to release something like this, even if it's anonymous.

I agree completely. It's all part of the ever-increasing erosion of personal privacy.

There may not be any laws (at least, where he is) that would make posting the ID's a criminal act, and that may be what he's thinking. The issue would be more one of liability than legality.

 

[GroverLang]

It’s fascinating. I googled my real me and nada. I have almost no social media profile and even the real me is anonymized enough. Never used my real surname anywhere online. My Chloe Tzang is another story. Wow.

Unfortunately when I google myself there are two references on the first page. That’s why when I chose this pseudonym I selected a name completely different from my real name. Not something as stupid as an anagram or FredC.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Under my real name, I come up as a German manufacture of ladies underwear. Go figure. Or I live in Georgia. Either one is untrue. Then there is my cousin about 5 times removed, who had the same first and last name as me. You will get his obit, but don't worry it's not me.