When we can’t find another way to explain our objections to facial-recognition software, for instance, creepy becomes a crutch.
By What if you walked into a bar and everybody knew your name—except you’d never been there before?
A couple of weeks ago, we were introduced to Facedeals, which integrates Facebook’sAPIs with facial recognition technology. When you enter a store, restaurant, or bar that uses Facedeals, your mug will be scanned so that you can be offered special deals and get automatically checked in to the location. “Creepy,” tech sites RedOrbit andTechCrunch both labeled it. That’s not surprising.
Creepy is the go-to term for broadcasting how technology unsettles us. Time and time again we’re asked to think in binary terms and identify a device or app either as good or its polar opposite, creepy. Although we’re often led to believe that creepy is an emotional response to things going horribly awry, our creepy radar isn’t nearly as reliable as Peter Parker’s danger determining spider sense.
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