1. Forum
  2. Newsgroups
  3. comp.misc

  • Why Google And Apple Are Blurring The Face Of The=?UTF-8?B?4oCcRG9taW5pb24gUm9hZCBCb3nigJ0=?=

    From Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?=@ldo@nz.invalid to comp.misc on Tue Nov 18 09:12:58 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    “Boy Walking”, an oversize sculpture of a young boy in Dominion Road, 🇳🇿 Auckland has had his face blurred in both Google’s and Apple’s map services. Why? Clearly it was an AI-driven decision where an algorithm
    has mistakenly concluded that this is a picture of a real, giant,
    human boy.

    Google was asked about this, and responded that such face-blurring
    decisions, whether justified or not, are “permanent”.

    <https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/google-and-apple-blur-face-of-tamaki-makauraus-dominion-road-boy/IH3RY7JS4BG6BH2XAH7W7GLHQQ/>
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Ben Collver@bencollver@tilde.pink to comp.misc on Tue Nov 18 14:00:09 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    On 2025-11-18, Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
    “Boy Walking”, an oversize sculpture of a young boy in Dominion Road, 🇳🇿 Auckland has had his face blurred in both Google’s and Apple’s map
    services. Why? Clearly it was an AI-driven decision where an algorithm
    has mistakenly concluded that this is a picture of a real, giant,
    human boy.

    Google was asked about this, and responded that such face-blurring
    decisions, whether justified or not, are “permanent”.

    <https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/google-and-apple-blur-face-of-tamaki- >makauraus-dominion-road-boy/IH3RY7JS4BG6BH2XAH7W7GLHQQ/>

    This reminds me of a science fiction short story i read. Sadly, i
    cannot recall the title. The protagonist was one of the last
    surgeons who had natural eyes, the rest had opted for enhanced vision.
    In this future, medical privacy was legally enforced. Patients could
    file in advance for any level of medical privacy. At the highest
    level of privacy, their names and faces would be blanked out by
    medical systems including the enhanced vision common in surgeons. It
    basically amounted to a digital Do Not Resuscitate.
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2