Couple Challenge: Privacy Ending Trap for Facial Surveillance or Random Social Trend?

Prior to that, simply posting these images online may hand over content readily to cyber criminals. Such images may be collected by a scammer, who can then morph it into abusive content, or use it in the rising volume of deepfakes that are growing across social media – even in India. Such scammers may then execute scams and cyber attacks such as identity theft, blackmail and threat tactics, revenge pornography and other such actions – things that can affect individuals severely in terms of mental health.

It is based on this that Pune City Police issued an advisory on Thursday, September 24. The awareness post warned users against participating in such a “cute challenge”, and urged them to think privacy first. Over time, numerous cyber police bodies across India have issued similar warnings to encourage basic cyber hygiene tactics on the internet. However, as the recently launched Netflix documentary, The Social Dilemma shows, the impact that Big Tech companies have had on the psyche of users is so deep rooted, that many of us are willing to overlook clear signs of breaches of our personal space, in exchange for social validation and a fickle, momentary sense of being appreciated.

Challenges such as the ‘Couple Challenge’ are hence best left avoided, and you as a user should attempt to post as little of your personal content online, as you can. Facial recognition algorithms feed off such content, learning more and more about your facial structure – so that one day, it can recognise your face in a crowded football stadium with 100,000 people within a few seconds. It is the essential tool of a surveillance state, one where you would not have any fundamental right of privacy. Be sure to stay away from it.