BIOMETRIC BONANZA
- Debi Evans
- Jan 27
- 3 min read
Updated: Feb 1
YouTube wants YOUR face in a secret trade off
How many of us have decided to turn off the television and turn our attention to content creators on YouTube? As mainstream media becomes more bonkers by the day, creators with a YouTube channel have been picking up the mainstream homeless. But is what we are watching real or fake?
Did you know that YouTube are busy collecting your biometric data? All for your safety and protection of course. But how are YouTube (owned by Google) justifying their need to obtain YOUR biometric data.
In an age where anyone can make anything look real, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to discern what is real, and what is not real. What if someone decided to put out a video of you that was completely fabricated but showed you in a bad light? This is called a ‘deep fake’. Publishing material which could show others in an unfavourable light causes much anxiety and fear.
In an effort to stop ‘deep fake’ video’s creators must show YouTube a picture of your real ID, passport or driving licence. It will also require you to make a short video of your face moving around. Think of it as a type of intense facial mapping. This is called ‘biometric data’. Like your DNA, this is your unique ‘face code’ that ONLY belongs to you. YouTube will use that map to spot fake videos of YOU and will help to take them down.
How relieved are you feeling now you know you can watch video’s without wondering if they are fake, and that YOU are protected? Have humans lost the ability to discern, it would appear so.
Are you prepared to have organisations, agencies and government departments map YOUR face? Here’s why you should be concerned.
1 Your face is your forever code.
You can’t change your real face like you change a password. If hackers steal that face map one day (because big companies sometimes get hacked), bad people could use it to make even better fake videos of you forever.
2 They might use it to teach their robot’s; your face effectively becomes a tool.
YouTube says they don't use your face code to teach their AI right now. But their big rules book says they COULD use things like that to make their computers smarter in the future. Think of it like lending your most prized possession that money simply cannot buy, but never getting it back.
3 It's like giving away your secret superpower
Your face is yours! Giving a huge company like Google your face picture and video means they know even more about you. They could use it for advertisements, tracking, surveillance or something else we are not aware of. But lest we forget, once it is in their gargantuan computer there is no going back. It belongs to them forever.
Whilst YouTube insist their new tool helps fight fake video’s, the trade off is your unique personal face map. Are you prepared to give them your face in return for what exactly?
For those who are reliant on their public image, influencers, journalists, content creators, activists or brands, the decision to enrol is fraught. Lawyers are scrambling to advise caution whilst reminding us that granting Google that level of control could mean losing ownership of your own face in the digital realm.
Like most things in life now, perhaps the best course of action is to do nothing. Wait and watch how events unfold. Perhaps find a different way of staying safe on line, or maybe come off line entirely? What started off as anti-deepfake protection might evolve into a system where your biometrics serve corporate AI ambitions first.
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