A Germany-based social media user of Weibo had recently sparked tension among privacy advocates. The unidentified Weibo user claimed to have developed a facial recognition software that can match the faces of porn actresses with their social media profiles. It was a PhD student from Stanford, who detailed the user’s claims in a Twitter post. The viral tweet soon caught the attention of critics who pointed out that the possibility of a public database that can match performers or even those who appear in pornographic videos online without their consent, raises several ethical and moral concerns. Now, as his intention is headlined everywhere, he attempted to come out as clean and reported that he has since deleted the project and all its data and is sorry for creating trouble. Revenge Porn: Jealous Ex-Lover Sends Woman's Sex Tape to Her Family and Colleagues, She Commits Suicide. 

The project reportedly took about half a year and was conducted by using an algorithm to crawl popular porn sites like PornHub, XVideos and then comparing the data against images on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, Weibo and more. As earlier reported by Vice, the user said he successfully identified more than 100,000 young ladies which he then used to create a searchable database. But none of the data was made public. MIT Technology Review reached the programmer recently via Weibo, and he insisted that the technology was real, but he has deleted the project and all its data. He further acknowledged that his creation raised the legal issue and he is “sorry” to have caused trouble. Porn to Be Banned in UK From July 15; Know Age Limit and Criterion to Watch XXX Content. 

There is still no proof that the system, which allegedly matched women’s social media photos with images from porn sites, actually worked or even existed. But it is worth noting here, that such technology is possible and would have had terrible consequences. The creation even highlighted a major point, that he is not the only one interested in using such programmes for dangerous purposes.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 02, 2019 10:51 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).