Creepy and Entertaining..

ecohen2

ecohen2

True Classic
This morning I was reading Jalopnik and came across an interesting article about Google and Facebook using OCR technology to scan license plates in photos. So being the geek that I am I had to go search for my license plate and guess what... Lots of images of my car from all over the place. Some posted in car forums, some in peoples personal photo albums, Instagram, etc..

Here is the article:
https://jalopnik.com/google-is-reading-your-license-plates-1839259494

And here is a photo of my car from 2015 on Flickr...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/areaguides/21631798443/


Ed
 
Joe Parlanti has the right idea, he has a placard up against the front of his double bubble to hide his license plate. Ed you are the consumate IT geek, I'm surprised this surprises you.

By the way, any pics of your 124 coupe you keep telling me you used to own or do I have to search on the web for it?

my 850 coupe
IMG_0645[1].JPG
 
wonder when they triggered this. I know I have pics of my plate online (flikr and others). and when I google it, it doesnt show up.

Odie
 
Maybe you have to live somewhere exciting. I tested with my 85's plate. I have posted this picture on a few sites. No results for my car, but there were definitely other cars with "CYY" on their plates scattered thru the results.
IMG_1835.JPG

Checked my 78X and 79X plates from about 8 years ago, nothing there either. I guess that's a good thing.
 
The associations go farther than just the license plate. When I searched for my Scorpion plate (no spaces in what you type in, btw), I get pictures of the car, plus pictures that are related to the car but don't contain an image of the license plate. I don't know if that's because they are all in the same post on Xweb, or if they were all in the same PhotoBucket folder, or what.

Pete
 
Pete Whitstone said:
I get pictures of the car, plus pictures that are related to the car but don't contain an image of the license plate.
Click to expand...
That's even more creepy. Hopefully it is like you said, the pics were linked by some reasonable explanation (e.g. from the same folder). But even that is going a bit far for this in my opinion. I really can't understand why such features would be developed...or should I say, I wonder what the REAL reason is for developing such a feature? I'm sure there is a whole lot more than license plates that are being recognized and tracked. o_O
I'd search my plates' numbers but I don't know what they are without going out and looking at them (which I'm too lazy to do). :oops:

In a way this reminds me of the DNA testing services that have become so popular. You know, mail a sample of your spit or poo to them and they tell you where you came from or what diseases you may be prone to. Apparently those services are all linked to government databases and the DNA info is being used for other purposes, without the individuals' knowledge. :eek:
 
Dr.Jeff said:
That's even more creepy. Hopefully it is like you said, the pics were linked by some reasonable explanation (e.g. from the same folder). But even that is going a bit far for this in my opinion. I really can't understand why such features would be developed...or should I say, I wonder what the REAL reason is for developing such a feature? I'm sure there is a whole lot more than license plates that are being recognized and tracked. o_O
I'd search my plates' numbers but I don't know what they are without going out and looking at them (which I'm too lazy to do). :oops:

In a way this reminds me of the DNA testing services that have become so popular. You know, mail a sample of your spit or poo to them and they tell you where you came from or what diseases you may be prone to. Apparently those services are all linked to government databases and the DNA info is being used for other purposes, without the individuals' knowledge. :eek:
Click to expand...

I don't really read anything nefarious into google doing this. It's just to augment search functionality. Think about a meme that is all image, no text. If you searched for the text embedded within the meme, this allows it to be found. It's not targeted at license plates or anything. Now, not intended to be nefarious, but used for nefarious purposes... that is a surety. Let's face it, if you or anyone else post a photo online, there can be no expectation of privacy.

As far as the DNA stuff goes, yeah... that's how they caught the Unabomber. Not because HE submitted his DNA, but because his SISTER did. I have to wonder about all the unintended consequences here. Sealed adoption records mean nothing, for example... you can find out if you are adopted, and you can find your real birth parents if you are. Stuff like that.

Pete
 
Pete Whitstone said:
I don't really read anything nefarious into google doing this.
Click to expand...
Perhaps there was no ill intent initially, but as you say it will happen. Also reminds me of the in-home devices (Echo, Google Home, etc) that record video and sound all the time, and transmit the recordings to the hosts online. The initial idea might have been for innocent marketing purposes, but then again maybe not.
 
Pete Whitstone said:
(no spaces in what you type in, btw)
Click to expand...
In my 3 test plates, with or without a space makes no difference in my car showing up. The results are slightly different though. My 85's plate brings back LOTS of pictures of bikini clad women. So that's a plus. :)
 
Google and FB introduced OCR technology and use it on every image they scan, so this wasn't for license plates specifically. I also don't think there is any harm in being able to search for text in an image. The harm comes with what they do with the data and begin to make decisions for you...
 
Yep. Google utilizes OCR scanning on all submitted images. Not surprising. I've been telling everyone for years Google is a data miner. Information on you, me and everything else is their business. Their only product is YOU, and what they can monetize from selling your somewhat formally private data. Just a big data vacuum. I try and stay away from anything they've touched and use alternate software and applications when possible.
 
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