"The FBI Shouldn't Play with Google Images!"

[Dave Farber <dfarber () me com>]

> From: "Lauren Weinstein" <lauren () vortex com>
> To: <dave () farber net>
> Date: January 16, 2010 11:08:36 PM EST
> Subject: "The FBI Shouldn't Play with Google Images!"
>
>
>
>                "The FBI Shouldn't Play with Google Images!" 
>
>                http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000669.html
>
>
> Greetings.  
>
> This one's from the "Fun with Photoshop and Google Images Department":
>
> There's a funky old 1972 movie called "Children Shouldn't Play with
> Dead Things" ( http://bit.ly/5dNXG9 ) -- but we might want to headline
> a new embarrassment for the FBI by the somewhat similar title: "The
> FBI Shouldn't Play with Google Images!"
>
> Actually, the situation would be even more funny if it weren't
> potentially so serious.  On Friday, to considerable fanfare and media
> attention, the U.S. State Department released a "digitally enhanced
> and aged" image of Osama bin Laden, complete with a reminder of the
> $25-million reward for his capture or obliteration ( http://bit.ly/6mBHBj ).
>
> Just one problem.  It didn't take long for a top Spanish lawyer and
> Member of Parliament to notice that the new image representing the
> world's most wanted man was ... uh ... strikingly similar to his own
> face.  Cough, choke, spit out the coffee onto the newspaper!  Ouch.
>
> Now comes the really good part.  The FBI originally had claimed that
> it aged terror suspect photos using "cutting edge" technology.  But
> after Gaspar Llamazares (who turns out to be a critic of the U.S. "war
> on terror") expressed concerns about sharing much of his face with
> someone carrying such a massive bounty, the FBI admitted to using a
> somewhat different procedure in this case.
>
> It turns out that they lifted a photo of Llamazares from an old
> campaign poster found on Google Images, then simply cut and pasted his
> hair, jaw line, and forehead onto bin Laden's face ( http://bit.ly/77iMEO ).
>
> The State Department has now pulled that photo down from their wanted
> terrorists Web Site.
>
> As you can imagine, Llamazares is most definitely not amused.
>
> But it could have been worse.  The FBI might have used images of Conan
> O'Brien and Jay Leno to update bin Laden's visage.
>
> Now that's scary.
>
> --Lauren--
> Lauren Weinstein
> lauren () vortex com
> Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
> http://www.pfir.org/lauren
> Co-Founder, PFIR
>   - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
> Co-Founder, NNSquad
>   - Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
> Founder, GCTIP - Global Coalition 
>   for Transparent Internet Performance - http://www.gctip.org
> Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
> Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
> Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein


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