It might seem fun to participate in the now traditional “10-year challenge” of posting throwback photos on social media, but there are hidden risks even in those seemingly innocuous memories from 2016.
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For example, if you upload a bunch of photos of your smiling face at Beyoncé’s Formation tour, that might impact your security on banking apps. Those photos might also be used to train artificial intelligence. Matt Wren, tech expert and founder of VRAR Chicago, joined Rob Hart on WBBM Newsradio’s Noon Business Hour this week to explain.
“When it comes to these types of, you know, like the photo challenges, I don’t think… people… people who created the challenge are, you know, trying to do this intentionally to train AI,” said Wren. “But, are those pictures potentially going to be used for that purpose? Yeah, absolutely.”
He noted that social media, by nature, is focused on the sharing of information. Even accounts with strict privacy controls are still around for the purpose of sharing.
“If it is shared, it is outside of your control, somebody else has access to it,” Wren explained. “So, the assumption should always be everyone has access.”
He also said that AI image scraping and facial recognition can have positive applications, such as finding missing children. However, sharing any information, even a face, can put people at risk.
“The question is: ‘Okay, but are other people going to try and use that same technology to exploit, you know, um, biometric like banking or,’” or opening your phone.
Basically, if something is on the internet, there is a good chance it’s going to be used to train something. When in doubt, Wren said: “If you don’t want information out there, don’t put it on the internet.”
However, that doesn’t mean you have to sit out of the 10-year challenge. Hart simply shared a photo of the old WBBM studio without faces. Photos of old clothes, those concert videos you saved and never watched – those could all be good contenders.