Google buys firm that specializes in facial recognition

Google a company that can best be described as an engineer wet dream. It was founded by engineers, its run by engineers, and unless you have got hard data to support any of your statements during a meeting, you will be ignored. That being said, the stereotype of engineers being a bit… how should we put this, out of touch with both the formal and informal rules governing society, is definitely there when you look at some of the past decisions they have made around the areas of user privacy just look at Google Buzz.

The world breathed a collective sigh of relief about a month ago when former CEO Eric Schmidt said that despite the company having facial recognition technology in house, "its the only technology that Google built and after looking at it, we decided to stop." That does not explain then this recent report from the Wall Street Journal that says Google has spent an as yet to be identified sum of money on a 7 year old company known as Pittsburgh Pattern Recognition; "PittPatt" for short. Its lead by 3 specialists with Phs from Carnegie Mellon University, exactly the type of talent Google loves.