Have online social networks created one of the largest databases of identities in the world? We investigate the technical feasibility and privacy implications of combining publicly available Web 2.0 images with off-the-shelf face recognition technology, for the purpose of large-scale, automated individual re-identification. A series of experiments demonstrate a high degree of success in identifying, as well as inferring sensitive information about, strangers online and offline based on profile pictures posted on popular online social networks. The results highlight the technological and legal implications of the convergence of face recognition technologies and online social networks, and the future of privacy in an augmented reality world.
Alessandro Acquisti is an Associate Professor of Information Technology and Public Policy at the Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University. He is the co-director of the CMU Center for Behavioral Decision Research (CBDR), a member of Carnegie Mellon Cylab, and a fellow of the Ponemon Institute. His work investigates the economic and social impact of IT, and in particular the economics and behavioral economics of privacy and information security, as well as privacy in online social networks. His research has been disseminated through journals (including Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Marketing Science, Journal of Consumer Research, Marketing Letters, Information Systems Research, IEEE Security & Privacy, Journal of Comparative Economics, Rivista di Politica Economica, and so forth), edited books ("Digital Privacy:Theory, Technologies, and Practices.'' Auerbach, 2007), book chapters, international conferences, and international keynotes. His findings have been featured in media outlets such as NPR, NBC, MSNBC.com, the Washington Post, the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, the New Scientist, CNN, Fox News, and Bloomberg TV. Alessandro has received national and international awards, including the PET Award for Outstanding Research in Privacy Enhancing Technologies, the IBM Best Academic Privacy Faculty Award, the Heinz College Teaching Excellence Award, and various best paper Awards. Two of his manuscripts were selected by the Future of Privacy Forum in their best "Privacy Papers for Policy Makers" competition. He is and has been member of the program committees of various international conferences and workshops, including ACM EC, PET, WEIS, ETRICS, WPES, LOCA, QoP, and the Ubicomp Privacy Workshop at Ubicomp. In 2007 he co-chaired the DIMACS Workshop on Information Security Economics and the WEIS Workshop on the Economics of Information Security. In 2008, he co-chaired the first Workshop on Security and Human Behavior with Ross Anderson, Bruce Schneier, and George Loewenstein. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Humboldt Foundation, the National Aeronautics & Space Administration, Microsoft Corporation, as well as CMU CyLab and CMU Berkman Fund. Prior to joining CMU Faculty, Alessandro Acquisti researched at the Xerox PARC labs in Palo Alto, CA, with Bernardo Huberman and the Internet Ecologies Group (as intern), and for two years at RIACS, NASA Ames Research Center, in Mountain View, CA, with Maarten Sierhuis and Bill Clancey (as visiting student). At RIACS, he worked on agent-based simulations of human-robot interaction onboard the International Space Station. While studying at Berkeley, he co-founded with other fellow students a privacy technology company, PGuardian Technologies.