Facial Recognition – goodbye to privacy?

Facial recognition is already being used and tested by a number of businesses, including educational
institutes to stop truancy, at airports to fight terrorism, and it was used in all stadiums during the FIFA World Cup 2014 to gain information on potential hooligans and trouble makers.
However, facial recognition technology has got a lot of privacy advocates concerned, and rightly so.


What is Facial Recognition?
So, what is facial recognition technology? Facial recognition is a biometric (like fingerprints or iris recognition) capable of identifying a person from a digital image stored on a database of known faces. It’s unique, just like an individual’s fingerprint, or a person’s social security number or credit card number.

There are a number of facial recognition software companies such as the Japanese multinational corporation NEC’s Face Recognition system which helps retail companies to track shoplifters, but the technology could also make the everyday shopper feel like a VIP.

In 2013 facial recognition technology was tested in a number of stores and hotels in the UK, the US and in the Far East to detect celebrities. NEC’s facial recognition technology was able to recognise celebrities from a database of their images, and could even identify a person if they were wearing a hat, or wearing sunglasses, or if they changed their hair colour.

Feel like a VIP!
Imagine visiting your favourite store, your face could be matched to information held in the store’s database, and when you walk into a store you could be greeted by name, by a sales assistant. But would this make you feel special, like you’re a VIP, or would this concern you? But wait! How would our images end up on their databases in the first place? Well, there are a number of different ways, for example, when you ‘like’ a brand on Facebook, let’s say Nike (who currently have over 22 million likes) all those who ‘liked’ the Nike Facebook page could find their image uploaded onto the facial recognition system.

Jennifer Lynch, legal counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), speaking to business magazine Fast Company said “Oftentimes with data collection in retail, the customer doesn’t know how that data is being used. The customer might be offered five bucks off if they give the retail company their email address, but with a face template, it’s data that follows you: It’s tracked in-store, tracked in the checkout counter, it might be linked to your credit card data…and all that might be sold to a third party.”

Facial recognition systems placed in stores would specifically target shoppers, bribing customers for their data with offerings such a free coffee, and then pestering you to spend, spend, spend!

Facial Recognition is creeping into our everyday lives!
Facebook uses facial recognition, its controversial “DeepFace” system to identify people in photos uploaded to their site, which when you see permission to “tag” requests pop-up.  Facebook knows who you are, who you’re with, and what you’re doing using its facial recognition technology which scans users’ faces and matches them.

Of course, facial recognition poses a tougher issue with regards to privacy. Our faces are out in the open, we may not know exactly when and where our data is being collected and if our data is being sold to a third party. Day by day George Orwell’s dystopian novel, 1984 is becoming a reality.
In China, facial recognition was recently introduced in two Chinese universities to curb truancy, and to prevent students from registering their friends on their behalf.  According to Want China Times, once the facial recognition was up and running 100% of students turned up. There’s a surprise!
Facial recognition software will soon be implemented in Australia’s international airports to match travellers to their passports in a bid to thwart terrorism and threats at their borders. Australia has been tightening its grip on on its netizens, recently rolling out its data retention plan, a controversial scheme which threatens every Australian’s fundamental right to privacy.

While in the United States, facial recognition technology is being tested in Washington D.C’s Dulles airport. Facial recognition technology is being used to identify criminals, and potential terrorists by running travellers’ mugshots through software and comparing it to the picture on their e-passport chip. US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) part of Department of Homeland Security (DHS), were quick to point out that the photos won’t be shared to any other agency and will be deleted once the 19 month program is over.

A CBP spokesperson speaking to Motherboard said “The technology is a stand-alone system and will not communicate with any other parties, databases or systems…CBP remains committed to protecting the privacy of all travelers.”

Well that’s reassuring!
Although the US government haven’t exactly earned themselves a medal for honesty in the past, so why would we believe them now?
Will deleting the images be enough to protect our privacy?

David Maass from the Electronic Frontier Foundation told Motherboard “Today, it’s testing at the border, tomorrow it could be facial recognition deployed in public places. “Today, the photos taken are being kept segregated from other departments and agencies, tomorrow they could be shared for a whole host of other purposes.”​

On a lighter note, facial recognition is being used to find lost pets. Miami-Dade Animal Services in Florida will become the first shelter to use the app, Finding Rover, which helps reunite pet owners with their lost pooch. Owners simply download the app and take a snapshot of their dog on their smartphone. If your dog wanders off ‘Littlest Hobo’ style, the dog owner can press a button on the app, the dog’s image is scanned by facial recognition software and hopefully owner and dog are reunited. Check out the other ways in which facial recognition is being used!


So now you know what facial recognition is, how do you feel about it? Does it concern you that every move you make, every breath you take, someone could be watching you?