Eric Schmidt says Google can build a facial recognition database but won’t. So…that’s comforting. I think. Speaking at the Google “Big Tent” event, the executive chairman at the company says that facial recognition software is making huge advances. Soon, he says, the technology will be available to let someone build a massive database of everyone’s faces. That way you could point a camera at people walking down the street and see who everyone is, maybe get their life story as well. But, says Schmidt, that is a line too creepy even for Google to pass. He urges governments to not support this kind of system. Still, if the tech is coming, someone is going to use it. It’s not hard to imagine a repressive government getting something like this going.
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