The Wall Street Journal reports on research conducted at Carnegie Mellon University that successfully identified approximately one-third of participants using the same facial recognition technology recently acquired by Google. Using profile data from Facebook, the study's author could also correctly predict the first five digits of the participants' Social Security numbers nearly 27 percent of the time. One law professor notes that the combination of available, "anonymous" online data and the technology makes re-identifying people possible. The study's author says, "This paper really establishes that re-identification is much easier than experts think it's going to be." (Registration may be required to access this story.) 
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