NOTICE: Facebook And Google Indexing Your Firearm Serial Numbers

[txradioguy]

Google and Facebook have now made it possible to find photos of firearms by simply typing a serial number into the search box.  Earlier today, the automotive website Jalopnik published a story showing how license plate numbers are evidently scanned using optical character recognition (OCR) on Google images, allowing them to be searchable using text queries. Using the OCR hypothesis, TFB wondered if this image data mining technique might be able to be used to search for firearm serial numbers. Using images posted previously on TFB with serial numbers displayed on firearms, we tested the serial number search technique.  As you can see from the results below, firearm serial numbers are in fact part of this apparent large-scale data mining operation by companies like Google and Facebook.

It appears Google, with the help of Facebook, is archiving this information and making it easier to aggregate.  In order to further test this theory, I tried a different serial number, this time from a silencer review. Placing the search term in quotes, Google is forced to search for only that specific character string.

Facebook and Google are Reading and Cataloging Your Firearm Serial Numbers. If you’re an avid TFB reader, you might have read our article about how we’re not concerned about posting firearms serial numbers.  However, this does not mean that we should be complacent in the information that we share being controlled or censored.

It’s clear that the firearms community is not being singled out by this data mining operation.  And no, you as an individual cannot readily lookup someone’s personal information with only firearm serial numbers.  Regardless of this, Instagram is owned by Facebook, and YouTube is owned by Google.  As both of these companies are privately owned, but heavily relied upon, the knowledge of this publicly available data mine is unsettling.

https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2019/10/22/google-firearm-serial-numbers/

[Smokin Joe]

What they don't know won't hurt you. I have never posted images of a personal firearm on line, and will not do so, but if anyone must, I would recommend obscuring the serial number by blocking it from view or simply imaging the other side of the arm.

[Sighlass]

Sorta a stretch to actually read the numbers via a picture I would think. I have to put on glasses to read mine right in front of me.

[Smokin Joe]

Sorta a stretch to actually read the numbers via a picture I would think. I have to put on glasses to read mine right in front of me.

Not really. When doing inventory after a fire, I photographed a Nintendo DS my kid had had from a few feet away, held out by a helper. Later, I expanded the image and could read the fine print on the back of the DS, including the serial number, something I could not do with my eyes unassisted, if I held the device in my hand.

[Sighlass]

Not really. When doing inventory after a fire, I photographed a Nintendo DS my kid had had from a few feet away, held out by a helper. Later, I expanded the image and could read the fine print on the back of the DS, including the serial number, something I could not do with my eyes unassisted, if I held the device in my hand.

I guess you could be on something, pixel quality has gotten better the last decade... the crummy pictures FB puts up for us to view (after uploading) is scaled down in size (to save them bandwidth) but they have the original high quality to digest before putting up the scaled down version.

[roamer_1]

Hee Hee Hee...
Not my serial numbers... Knock yourself out.

[Smokin Joe]

Hee Hee Hee...
Not my serial numbers... Knock yourself out.

Not even my firearms get their lovely images put online. If it isn't on line, it is tougher to mine the data.

[mountaineer]

Sadly, mine were lost ... well, you know ...

[skeeter]

I own no firearms.

And if I did I wouldn't post any indication of owning any.

[roamer_1]

Not even my firearms get their lovely images put online. If it isn't on line, it is tougher to mine the data.

That's right... But it wouldn't matter anyhow, at least to me. I think only two of my present guns were bought over the counter all the rest are likely several times removed, and very pointedly bought off the back of a truck - The guys that sold em don't know me from a hole in the ground.

So the serial will do them no good.

[DCPatriot]

I own no firearms.

And if I did I wouldn't post any indication of owning any.

Same here. 

Never in my life did I feel the need to keep one at home.   

But, damn...we're living in  STRANGER THINGS, where everything is upside down.

Now we're at the point where MSNBC, CNN et al...have to act incredulous that AG Barr has begun a criminal investigation...upon his return from Italy with several Blackberries that prove the players were paid by 'Western Intelligence', which does NOT include Russia.

And all my FRiends that I've had to bite my effing tongue these past few years...now they have to admit they've got the cognitive ability of a tree stump....OR...that they "....can't believe I was lied to all these years....blah, blah, blah"

It's one or the other.  Because the first one that brushes it off with, "They all do it....", will no longer be in my every-shrinking circle.