It's no secret that technology plays an important role in our lives. Almost every single aspect of our life is ruled by technology, from smart phones to computers and the internet. That's why it's not surprising to know that Google and Facebook are keeping tabs on gun owners' firearms.
According to The Firearms Blog (TFB), the two tech giants are scanning users' pictures to look for serial numbers. They're then creating an index of every person's firearms based on the image scans. If you've posted a picture of your firearm on a social networking site and didn't smear out the serial number, chances are it's indexed on Google images. Simply type in the serial number in quotes and search images. What comes up?
The guys at TFB went through their image library and found images of various firearms and silencers where the serial number is clearly visible. They then typed it into Google and viola! Every image from their website showed up in the image results.
Although it's unlikely for a random person to have the serial number on your firearms, it is absolutely dangerous for social media giants to have this information. Facebook and Instagram are both owned by the same company. Same with YouTube and Google. When these platforms data mine this information, this creates an extremely dangerous situation.
Gun owners have worried about firearm registries because they inevitably lead to confiscation. If the government has tabs on every single gun in America it makes it easier for them to come beating on our doors, demanding that we hand them over (just as Beto has proposed). These social media giants and their owners are lefties. For all we know, these private organizations can willingly hand over a person's name and the serial numbers on their firearms to the government. And before anyone says this is an invasion of privacy, just remember: when you signed up for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and every other social networking website out there, you agreed to their terms and conditions. Anything you put on their website becomes their property, meaning they can decide how to use that information against you.
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If you're going to share pictures of your firearms, suppressors or anything with a serial number, take the extra 30 seconds and blur out the serial number. Better to be safe than sorry.
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