I would not trust the Google… I used to use Gmail, until I found out they even scan your unsent emails.
@Zee, I usually edit my photos, then use the Windows Snipping tool to make a screen shot of my photo, and upload that, so you should not have the GPS info and such. Not a bad idea with how popular cell phones are as cameras, people could see what guns you have and find out where your house is.
@DBrogue Can you recommend a good app? I went to google play and there were tons. I already dropped google for DuckDuckGo. I like it.
Thanks…
It is all personal preference and what your comfortable with
Former IL States Atty Lisa Madigan tried to publish a map showing where gun owners live. The effort was blocked because the information was provided to the government confidentially. My guess is FB and Google will be able to get around those restrictions, since the information was provided with the person’s consent.
That’s why I never take pictures of my firearms. It’s implied that I own firearms but you can’t prove a damn thing. Thank God I live in a free state like Arizona; as long as the Democrats don’t take over.
The application of object recognition to image processing is not new at all. Using it in this way has the potential for both good and misuse; same as facial recognition and algorithmic bias and all metadata.
The good:
If there was a crime committed using a stolen firearm, the record leads back to the owner but not the thief, unless the thief posted pics showing it off as their own. I’m curious now, what are the gun theft statistics for different cities? Anyone know how to find this stat?
The bad:
Mega corporations know even more about you and will process and use this data for an unknown purpose in the future. And if their current or future leadership decides that you don’t fit into their model of an ideal person then maybe they digitally harass or bury you. Just look at how YouTube demonitizes or flat out deletes channels for lots of topics including guns and viruses that shall not be named. Why do they do this? Biased censorship based on their ideals? Maybe a bit of that, good luck fighting against a private company’s T&C’s you explicitly accepted, but it’s really about the ad money. The ad money doesn’t want to be associated with channels that curse or talk about guns or spread potential “misinformation”. So those channels lose all monetization and get buried in the search algorithm.
The ugly:
Doxing gun owners.
This isn’t okay.
It most definitely is not OK. we should not be allowing this kind of thing. Trust-busting was made necessary by the abuses that big business began to engage in after it had caused a great many people to become reliant on them for what had become the indispensable necessities of life, and then, heartlessly manipulated those necessities for their own purposes, causing enormous suffering. The tech giants have similarly found themselves in such a position, and true to human nature, are falling prey to much the same temptations with their enormous unchecked power.
It looks to me like it could be a first step to a registration data base, with or without a law. Windows runs the computers at gun stores when they sell a firearm, where they’ve entered you name DOB, SSN, address, type of gun serial number, etc. I’m not sure of the mechanics of it all. I’m not much of a tech guy, but I am a semi-conspiracy believer. It doesn’t seem beyond the possibility of a data base already existing. Didn’t microsoft help create the data base that tracks and gives citizens usefulness ratings in china? Maybe I don’t understand as much as I should, but this kind of stuff scares the crap out of me.
This is why, in my opinion, knowing History, ( truthful history ), is so important to giving perspective on things like the internet and the abilities of those who control it’s most influential and powerful technologies. Rarely, if ever, does great unaccountable power fail to be horribly abused. It’s truly terrifying the things the technology can do and what they can figure out from all the things your cell phone can keep them apprised of. Most people have no idea all the things, even minute and seemingly inconsequential things, your cell phone may be sending to google’s algorithms for analysis. They can figure out things you would never imagine with all that raw data and a tireless computer to sift through it all. So far such things are only admitted too in China, but that gives me no comfort.
I actually drop notes to people in the “show us your new gun thread” about this. I try really hard not to post serial numbers.
Anyone still handing out those tin foil hats? I need one!
I always use a VPN for everything I do online. Question is does the VPN give me protection from this intrusion?
That and your check is in the mail…
It is an invasion of privacy .
Consider that California wants firearms to have (2) stamps per firearm then it’s in a data base.
A lot of locations are adapting the chip practice. That data is being dispersed and really savvy hackers will have a field day with it.
I don’t say any theory is a tin foil hat belief. Just because it’s almost truly unbelievable doesn’t keep it from becoming an absolute reality.
VPN only gives you a secure connection to another server. If you connect from that server to another website the connection isn’t necessarily secure.
I believe they keep a log of all serial numbers and a list of weapons mentioned in people’s timelines. I am guilty myself of sharing the type and quantity of guns I own. (Younger and stupider then.) They will happily share them (for money, most likely) with those who are determined to remove every weapon from every household in the US.
Or pictures of serial numbers!!