IBM is under scrutiny for taking one photos from hosting service Flickr to help improve its facial recognition training programmes and providing them to other researchers. The photos were originally collated by Flickr’s previous owner Yahoo to conduct research and shared under a Creative Commons license. This grants free use with some restrictions, but either way does not cover use in facial recognition systems. Some photographers told NBC the subjects would have had no idea the images would be used here without consent. IBM reiterated the pictures’ public availability and said individuals are able to remove themselves.
IBM is under scrutiny for taking almost a million photos from hosting service Flickr to help improve its facial recognition training programmes and providing them to other researchers. The photos were originally collated by Flickr’s previous owner Yahoo to conduct research and shared under a Creative Commons license. This grants free use with some restrictions, but either way does not cover use in facial recognition systems. Some photographers told NBC the subjects would have had no idea the images would be used here without consent. IBM reiterated the pictures’ public availability and said individuals are able to remove themselves.