Technology & Innovation — December 10, 2009

Google Goggles

The new Google tool, Google Goggles, which allows users to search using pictures and not words, will exclude faces from its results for fear of a privacy backlash.

bigthinkeditor

The new Google tool, Google Goggles, which allows users to search using pictures and not words, will exclude faces from its results for fear of a privacy backlash. The service, currently available only on Google Android cell phones, allows users to focus their phone camera on an object and the search engine then compares elements of the picture against its database of images and provides a match. However, the same usage will not be available for people: “We are blocking out people’s faces if people try to use Google Goggles to search for information about them. Until we understand the implications of the facial recognition tool we have decided to make sure we block out people’s faces. We need to really understand how this tool affects people’s privacy and cannot change that decision until we do,” Marissa Mayer, vice president of Google’s search product and user experience, told The Telegraph.

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