A concise Joseph J. Atick discourse on the power and risk brought by the combination of face recognition, the ubiquity of point-and-shot camera (mobile phones), the availability of identified faces on the web together with public information on everybody:

Atick must know, he “had co-founded one of the original facial recognition companies, Visionics Corporation. Over the years, Dr. Atick co-founded and managed several companies focused on technology transfer and development, and has served as a technical advisor to many high-tech enterprises and organizations, including NATO” says his profile on forbes.

… the late-capitalist digital death, a media event so intoxicating that even people who are not technically “celebrated” are seconded from their death scenes, to the benefit of nothing.

interesting article about the (social) media echo on the death of Peaches Geldof (the guardian).