Facial recognition is here to stay. And we should all probably accept it

ronjor · Apr 16, 2019

Microsoft turned down facial-recognition sales on human rights concerns

Joseph Menn April 16, 2019
PALO ALTO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp recently rejected a California law enforcement agency’s request to install facial recognition technology in officers’ cars and body cameras due to human rights concerns, company President Brad Smith said on Tuesday.
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guest · Apr 17, 2019

We Built an ‘Unbelievable’ (but Legal) Facial Recognition Machine
April 16, 2019
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/04/16/opinion/facial-recognition-new-york-city.html

Facial recognition, applied to the web of cameras that already exists in most cities, is a threat to that privacy.
To demonstrate how easy it is to track people without their knowledge, we collected public images of people who worked near Bryant Park (available on their employers’ websites, for the most part) and ran one day of footage through Amazon’s commercial facial recognition service.

Our system detected 2,750 faces from a nine-hour period (not necessarily unique people, since a person could be captured in multiple frames). It returned several possible identifications, including one frame matched to a head shot of Richard Madonna, a professor at the SUNY College of Optometry, with an 89 percent similarity score. The total cost: about $60.

“The technology has advanced faster than even I thought that it would,” said Jennifer Lynch, surveillance litigation director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. She said that because of how quickly the technology has advanced, she would now support a wholesale ban on government use of facial recognition.
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guest · Apr 19, 2019

NYC subway denies using ‘real-time face recognition screens’ in Times Square
April 19, 2019
https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/19/...quare-fare-evasion-cameras-facial-recognition

The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority has denied suggestions that it’s putting facial recognition cameras in the subway, saying that a trick designed to scare fare-dodgers was misinterpreted. “There is no capability to recognize or identify individuals and absolutely no plan” to do so with NYC subway cameras, says MTA spokesperson Maxwell Young.

Young was responding to a photo taken in the Times Square subway station by New York Times analyst Alice Fung, which shows a prominently placed monitor with the words “RECORDING IN PROGRESS” and “Please Pay Your Fare” superimposed on a video feed. “Hey @MTA, who are you sharing the recordings with?” Fung asked.

New York’s subway system is already heavily surveilled; the MTA contracted with Lockheed Martin and others to install 1,000 cameras and 3,000 motion sensors across the system in 2005, and in 2015, the MTA said there were 4,500 cameras watching the subways.
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guest · Apr 22, 2019

Facial recognition creeps up on a JetBlue passenger and she hates it
April 22, 2019
https://www.zdnet.com/article/facial-recognition-creeps-up-on-a-jetblue-passenger-and-she-hates-it/

She began: "I just boarded an international @JetBlue flight. Instead of scanning my boarding pass or handing over my passport, I looked into a camera before being allowed down the jet bridge. Did facial recognition replace boarding passes, unbeknownst to me? Did I consent to this?"

JetBlue, as all good airlines do, was ready to offer Twitterized sympathy: "You're able to opt out of this procedure, MacKenzie. Sorry if this made you feel uncomfortable."
But once you start thinking about these things, your thoughts become darker. Fegan wanted to know how JetBlue knew what she looked like.

JetBlue explained: "The information is provided by the United States Department of Homeland Security from existing holdings."
JetBlue insisted it doesn't have access to the data. It's "securely transmitted to the Customs and Border Protection database."
just a few seconds her biometric data was whipped "securely" around government departments so that she would be allowed on the plane? [...]
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guest · Apr 23, 2019

Departing the U.S. from an airport? Your face will be scanned
April 23, 2019
https://mashable.com/article/departing-a-us-airport-your-face-will-be-scanned/

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is set to expand the use of facial recognition tech to identify just about every person leaving the United States on a commercial flight.

As Quartz reports, the CBP already uses facial recognition technology at 15 U.S. airports. The system works by capturing a photo of a passenger as they approach their airport departure gate. The image is then compared to visa and passport applications for a possible match so as to create an "exit record." No match flags the individual for closer inspection by the CBP.

The 15 airports already using facial recognition have had 15,000 flights and over two million passengers pass through the biometric exit system. Of those, over 7,000 passengers were detected as overstays. Considering the system only started being used in 2017, you can see why CBP views facial recognition as an important tool for use across all airports.
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ronjor · Apr 23, 2019

Teenager sues Apple for $1bn after facial recognition led to false arrest

Mariella Moon, @mariella_moon 23 Apr 2019
He has filed a $1 billion lawsuit against Apple.
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guest · Apr 23, 2019

What’s Going On With the Teenager Suing Apple Over Facial Recognition Technology?
April 23, 2019
https://slate.com/technology/2019/04/a-teenager-is-accusing-apple-of-misidentifying-him-with-a-facial-id-system.html

The suit claims that Apple and its contractor, Security Industry Specialists, caused Bah to suffer emotional distress as a result.
Apple has subsequently denied that it uses facial recognition in its stores.

The suit is getting a lot of attention, but there are reasons to be cautious. Though iPhones do feature Face ID as a more convenient login method, there is little evidence that Apple has developed any facial recognition technology for surveillance purposes
This is all to say that the alleged surveillance behaviors outlined in the lawsuit aren’t consistent with what the public knows about Apple’s past use of facial recognition systems. But it certainly isn’t impossible for the company to have secretly applied the technology to camera footage from its stores.
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guest · Apr 23, 2019

ronjor said: ↑

Teenager sues Apple for $1bn after facial recognition led to false arrest
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Updated:

Update, 4/23/19, 9:36AM ET: This story has been updated with a response from an Apple spokesperson, who says the company does not use facial recognition in its stores.
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guest · Apr 23, 2019

Facial Recognition Is Here To Stay
April 23, 2019
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2019/04/23/facial-recognition-is-here-to-stay/

This past weekend the New York Times published a fascinating look at just how commoditized facial recognition has become [...]
The rise of mass facial recognition, which has already become a public reality in China and a private reality in a number of cities around the world, is here to stay.

Facial recognition algorithms are not billion-dollar weapons systems relying on exotic export-controlled hardware. Anyone can build a primitive facial recognizer with a few lines of open source code, using an open source toolkit and training using open image datasets scraped from the web.
Even if Congress passed a law absolutely prohibiting all facial recognition, that would do nothing to stop its use across the world.

Yet, it is the security use of facial recognition that is perhaps the greatest argument for why its use is inevitable in our darkening and violent world.
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hawki · Apr 24, 2019

"DHS plan for face scanning at airports sparks alarm

Lawmakers and civil liberties advocates are calling on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to halt plans to begin using facial recognition technology on nearly all departing air passengers within the next four years.

The agency’s plan has reignited the fight over the sensitive technology. Critics say facial recognition technology is not ready for large-scale deployment and that DHS has failed to establish specific rules to prevent abuses and policies for handling the collected data..."

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/440323-dhs-plan-for-face-scanning-at-airports-sparks-alarm

guest · Apr 24, 2019

Japanese taxis will use facial recognition to target you with ads as you ride
April 24, 2019
https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/facial-recognition-taxi-japan/

In the age of Ubers, we’re quite used to our taxis knowing who we are. But we might not be ready for them to identify us in the way that a new Japanese startup is aiming for.
Spotted recently by Google privacy engineer Rosa Golijan, Premium Taxi Vision uses facial recognition technology to identify the key characteristics (age, gender, etc.) of riders and then present them with appropriate ads.

On the plus side, the concept theoretically means that, as with any kind of modern tech-driven advertising, you won’t get shown ads that aren’t intended for you.
The downside is that you’ll still get bombarded with ads while being ferried around [...]

“We have created the functionality to determine certain characteristics from photographs of passengers for potential future optimized ad delivery,” a spokesperson said.
Similar tech has been used by retailers for everything from advertising to security.
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guest · May 5, 2019

Facial recognition system rollout was too rushed, Queensland police report reveals
May 5, 2019
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05...t-facial-recognition-roll-out-rushed/11077350

The facial recognition system used in Queensland during the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games also had so few specific targets that it ended up being used for general policing.
The report, obtained by ABC News under Right to Information (RTI), showed none of the 16 high-priority targets requested as part of the operation could be identified.
Police tried to keep report secret
Queensland Law Society president Bill Potts said the public deserved to know the extent of surveillance methods being used by authorities.
"The difficulty is, when such technology exists when you have the Orwellian 'big brother is watching'. I think there needs to be very clear guidelines and very clear expectations set as to the circumstances under which it will be used."

Queensland privacy commissioner Philip Green, who was unaware of the documents until they were released to ABC News, said he had concerns about future use of the technology.
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guest · May 8, 2019

The creeping threat of facial recognition
May 7, 2019
https://www.fastcompany.com/90336549/the-creeping-threat-of-facial-recognition

In a unanimous vote on Monday, a San Francisco government committee pushed the city closer toward instituting a complete ban on government uses of face recognition technology.
“[T]here’s a fundamental flaw in our justification for these technologies,” Accenture’s Responsible AI Lead Rumman Chowdhury wrote on Twitter last month, referring to the San Francisco proposal.

Our fears become another reason to invest in more “security,” even though, if we took time to be social, open, and cooperative in our communities, there would be less to fear, and more security as we looked out for each other’s well being.
EXPERIMENTING WITH SURVEILLANCE ON EACH OTHER
As surveillance video became more affordable, many types of businesses increased their surveillance capabilities by adding cameras to their physical locations to discourage theft and violence.
[...] became a psychological deterrent as much as a policing effort: Yes, we were being recorded, but we didn’t know if anyone was watching the recording, nor did we know if they would act on what they had seen.

In essence, facial recognition offers a glittering promise of easily identifying and catching villains, like in the movies, without having to do any of the “messy” work of forming human relationships and getting to know the people in a community.
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guest · May 9, 2019

Millions of people uploaded photos to the Ever app. Then the company used them to develop facial recognition tools.
“The app developers were not clear about their intentions," one Ever user said. "I believe it’s a huge invasion of privacy.”
May 9, 2019
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/securi...otos-ever-app-then-company-used-them-n1003371

What isn’t obvious on Ever’s website or app — except for a brief reference that was added to the privacy policy after NBC News reached out to the company in April — is that the photos people share are used to train the company’s facial recognition system, and that Ever then offers to sell that technology to private companies, law enforcement and the military.

Facial recognition companies’ use of photos of unsuspecting people has raised growing concerns from privacy experts and civil rights advocates.
On Ever AI’s website, the company encourages public agencies to use Ever’s “technology to provide your citizens and law enforcement personnel with the highest degree of protection from crime, violence and injustice.”

“They are commercially exploiting the likeness of people in the photos to train a product that is sold to the military and law enforcement,” he said. “The idea that users have given real consent of any kind is laughable.”
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Krusty · May 13, 2019

Use of facial recognition tech 'dangerously irresponsible'

Black and minority ethnic people could be falsely identified and face questioning because police have failed to test how well their systems deal with non-white faces, say campaigners.

At least three chances to assess how well the systems deal with ethnicity were missed over the past five years, the BBC found.

Campaigners said the tech had too many problems to be used widely.

"It must be dropped immediately," said privacy rights group Big Brother Watch.
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https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-48222017

The ability of facial recognition software to cope with black and ethnic minority faces has proved a key concern for those worried about the technology, who claim the software is often trained on predominantly white faces.
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hawki · May 14, 2019

"San Francisco Bans Facial Recognition Technology

SAN FRANCISCO — On Tuesday, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors enacted the first ban by a major city on the use of facial recognition technology by police and all other municipal agencies.

The vote was 8 to 1 in favor, with two members who support the bill absent. There will be an obligatory second vote next week but it is seen as a formality..."

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/14/us/facial-recognition-ban-san-francisco.html

ronjor · May 16, 2019

The NYPD uses altered images in its facial recognition system, new documents show

By Russell Brandom May 16, 2019
A new report from Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy and Technology (CPT) has uncovered widespread abuse of the New York Police Department’s facial recognition system, including image alteration and the use of non-suspect images. In one case, officers uploaded a picture of the actor Woody Harrelson, based on a witness description of a suspect who looked like Harrelson. The search produced a match, and the matched suspect was later arrested for petty larceny.
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ronjor · May 17, 2019

Some US Cities Are Moving Into Real-Time Facial Surveillance

Gregory Barber, Tom SimoniteGregory Barber and Tom Simonite 05.17.19
The report says agencies in Chicago and Detroit have bought real-time facial recognition systems. Chicago claims it has not used its system; Detroit says it is not using its system currently. But no federal or state law would prevent use of the technology.
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hawki · May 17, 2019

"Police FINE pedestrian £90 for disorderly behaviour after he tries to cover his face from facial recognition camera on the streets of London..."

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...estrian-90-facial-recognition-camera-row.html

guest · May 20, 2019

Melbourne students are guinea pigs for NEC's facial recognition fraud tech
May 20, 2019
https://www.zdnet.com/article/melbo...-pigs-for-necs-facial-recognition-fraud-tech/

NEC Australia has announced the deployment of its NeoFace facial recognition software, which is aimed at identifying people committing examination fraud in educational institutions.

Genix Ventures is interested in determining that an enrolled student is actually the person sitting the exam, and not a substitute, with Genix Ventures CEO Steve Godinho saying that although rates of attempted impersonation vary, they could be as high as 2%.
He believes facial recognition is very useful to authenticate a student both at the start and at random intervals throughout the exam to minimise the possibility of students swapping places.
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hawki · May 20, 2019

"China has a new facial recognition app — this time for pandas

...Chinese tech whizzes, who already have perfected facial recognition technology for humans to frightening levels of accuracy, have now come up with an app that can tell one white-faced, black-eyed bear from another.

Visitors to the panda base in the Sichuan capital of Chengdu, one of China’s top tourist attractions, will be able to scan the panda’s face with the mobile app to get information about each individual bear...

The panda facial recognition technology is the result of two years of research and the analysis of about 120,000 images and 10,000 video clips of the black and white furballs. Scientists at the Chengdu base and Sichuan Normal University, with help from Singapore Nanyang Technological University, have created a database containing 10,000 marked and annotated panda photos..."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...36e482aa873_story.html?utm_term=.98e59001f1d1

Krusty · May 21, 2019

Police facial recognition surveillance court case starts

The first major legal challenge to police use of automated facial recognition surveillance begins in Cardiff today.

Ed Bridges, whose image was taken while he was shopping, says weak regulation means AFR breaches human rights.

The civil rights group Liberty says current use of the tool is equivalent to the unregulated taking of DNA or fingerprints without consent.

South Wales Police defends the tool but has not commented on the case.

In December 2017, Mr Bridges was having a perfectly normal day.

"I popped out of the office to do a bit of Christmas shopping and on the main pedestrian shopping street in Cardiff, there was a police van," he told BBC News.

"By the time I was close enough to see the words 'automatic facial recognition' on the van, I had already had my data captured by it.

"That struck me as quite a fundamental invasion of my privacy."

The case could provide crucial guidance on the lawful use of facial technology.
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-48315979

ronjor · May 21, 2019

If facial recognition is good enough for Taylor Swift, is it good enough for you?

Edward C. Baig, USA TODAY Published 5:02 a.m. ET May 21, 2019
The divisive debate over the use – or potential misuse – of facial recognition that has been raging on for years is heating up again.
“You can’t reset your face like you reset a password,” says Matt Cagle, a technology and civil liberties attorney with the ACLU in San Francisco. “The stakes of a data breach with biometric information are really quite high.”
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hawki · May 21, 2019

"Trump Administration Could Blacklist Chinese Surveillance Technology Firm

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is considering limits to a Chinese video surveillance giant’s ability to buy American technology, people familiar with the matter said, the latest attempt to counter Beijing’s global economic ambitions.

The move would effectively place the company, Hikvision, on a United States blacklist...

Hikvision is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of video surveillance products and is central to China’s ambitions to be the top global exporter of surveillance systems. The Commerce Department may require that American companies obtain government approval to supply components to Hikvision, limiting the company’s access to technology that helps power its equipment...

Hikvision says its products enable their clients to track people around the country by their facial features, body characteristics or gait, or to monitor activity considered unusual by officials, such as people suddenly running or crowds gathering...

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in an interview with Fox News on May 2 that the administration was concerned 'that the Chinese are working to put their systems in networks all across the world so they can steal your information and my information.'..."

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/21/us/politics/hikvision-trump.html

hawki · May 22, 2019

FYI:

House Oversight Hearing on Facial Recognition Technology

Today, May 22 | 10am ET

The House Oversight and Reform Committee holds a hearing to examine the use of facial recognition technology by the government and commercial entities and its impact on civil rights and liberties.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?460959-1/house-oversight-hearing-facial-recognition-technology

Recorded playback will also be available later in the day and evening.

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