Internet resources: Google will identify people in photos

Google is working on a new mobile application that would allow users to take pictures of people’s faces in order to access their personal information on the Web. Its developers claim that security issues which arise during work with such an application remain the major problem.

In order to be identified by the software, people would have to agree to give Google permission to access their pictures and profile information, said Hartmut Neven, the Google engineering director for image-recognition development.

"We recognize that Google has to be extra careful when it comes to privacy issues," Neven told. "Face recognition we will bring out once we have acceptable privacy models in place."

However it is still unknown when the company intends to release the product, and a Google spokesman said there is not a release timeline. The technology wouldn't necessarily be launched in a separate app. Instead, facial recognition could be issued as an update to an existing Google tool, such as its image search engine.