It seems that face-recognition software has been popular now since some of the biggest companies or government agencies have been sign them for a while now.   Of course, when it comes to big companies we all knew that Facebook uses a face recognition service to provide a better user experience for users.

The wide used of such application has brought about some general concern from the people as this could be used by people with bad intentions.  Whenever they used such technology, the whole world’s security becomes at risk.

Apple, Google, and Facebook are just few of the companies that are using the technology right now.  Since these companies hold such confidential information, the whole world wonders what if this technology fall into the wrong hands.

A recent study has proven that the same face-recognition software the Google and other companies that are using can also get a person’s social security number with just a photo. In a research, held at Carnegie Mellon University researchers found out that crucial information such as security numbers could be revealing with just a photo.  With the use, of the application, they could identify strangers as the photos taken could provide information from Facebook, social security numbers.

Associate professor of information technology Alessandro Acquisti led the team of researchers. In the first experiment, Acquisti and his team were able to identify vital information on social sites like Facebook. Take note, this information concealed in pseudonyms, so that other would find it harder to decode such information.  In the second experiment, they conducted they were able to recognize some of the students in the campus based on their social profile.  Lastly, team was able to guess the social security numbers with the help of their photo.

In the study, they collected 90 student photos and then uploaded it into the system.  Within seconds, the results came up.  30% of the students that the information they found are true, while the remaining 70% says the information are not true.  Researchers are able to conclude that this software could be use in exploiting vital information gathered from social sites.

If you share photos on social sites like Facebook, Google+, Twitter. It also means that you are sharing information with some bad people. If you do not want bad elements to find crucial information about you, then do not share it on the Internet.  If you want to share something that crucial then just meet the person, who would you like to divulge the information.