--- title: "This Facial Recognition App Remembers Names so You Don’t Have To" description: "The creators of an app called SocialRecall say it can use facial recognition to scan people you meet — or even strangers — and tell you their names." date: "2019-01-03" modified: "2019-01-03" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/facial-recognition-app-remembers-names" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Facial recognition" - "Future Society" tags: - "facial recognition" - "privacy" - "socialrecall" - "surveillance" --- # This Facial Recognition App Remembers Names so You Don’t Have To ![The creators of an app called SocialRecall say it can use facial recognition to scan people you meet — or even strangers — and tell you their names.]() *\Image: TréVoy Kelly/Tag Hartman-Simkins\* ## Facial Recognition Ever have trouble putting a name to a face? The creators of SocialRecall [say their app uses]() facial recognition to scan people you've met before — or even strangers at an event — and tell you their names. It's a bold vision of a future in which [facial recognition provides contextual information]() about the people around you — but also an inflection point in the mainstream deployment of a technology that [troubles privacy advocates](). ## Face Blindness There are two versions of the app, according to *Scientific American.* In one version, a user upload selfies that SocialRecall then uses to identify the person for other app users within the bounds of a specific geographic area, such an event venue. Another version is [designed for users with prosopagnosia](), better known as face blindness. That version lets a user tag images of their own friends so that the app can remind them of their names on the fly. ## Privacy Concerns SocialRecall says it deletes obsolete user data on the event version of the app, and that data for the other version is only stored on a user's phone. But privacy experts are still concerned that the app represents a mainstream rollout of technology that could have profound implications for the future of public spaces — and that it's difficult to adequately inform users about the long-term risks of a technology that's still so new. "The cost to everyone whom you are surveilling with this app is very, very high," New York University law professor Jason Schultz told *Scientific American*, "and I don't think it respects the consent politics involved with capturing people's images." **READ MORE:** [New App Helps People Remember Faces]() \[*Scientific American*\] ***More on facial recognition:*** *[Microsoft President Warns of “1984” Facial Recognition Future]()* ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()