Is Privacy Dead? – An Inquiry into GPS-Based Geolocation and Facial Recognition Systems

This paper discusses, conceptually and empirically, the proliferation of geolocation and face recognition systems embodied in modern smartphones and social media networks, which presents a growing concern for a user’s rights to privacy. This increase in data sharing brings about the very real threat of misuse, as most users are not aware that their geolocation data can easily be assembled into complete profiles of their everyday activities and movements, their habits and social life. Paired with facial recognition capabilities already present in current social media services, this allows for an unprecedented tracking of users, even those “tagged“ through photo uploads by other people. To illustrate this, the author analyzes his own profile, which was created by recording GPS data over a time span of five years. A critical discussion of the results follows.