Kate O’Neill | Read Write Collect

Bookmarked Facebook’s ’10 Year Challenge’ Is Just a Harmless Meme—Right? by Kate O’Neill (WIRED)

Opinion: The 2009 vs. 2019 profile picture trend may or may not have been a data collection ruse to train its facial recognition algorithm. But we can’t afford to blithely play along.

Kate O’Neill reports on the 10 year meme and wonders about the intent behind it. She suggests that we need to recognise that:

Humans are the richest data sources for most of the technology emerging in the world.

Ian O’Byrne thinks there are two possibilities on this debate:

One, Facebook (and other companies) is getting us to share/label photos for learning possibilities. I think this could definitely be used to help the machines learn.

Second, Facebook (and other companies) are getting us to play “remember when” as user attitudes and trust are making us question the business/organization. They’re hoping to have users emote and connect to strengthen bonds as they’re fraying.