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

deBoetie · Sep 12, 2019

I'm sure that, back in the day, over half of people would have said they trusted FB to look after your data.

The trouble with these land grabs is that LE overstate the benefits and minimise the iatrogenics, which in any case, are costs not born by them - the opposite, they benefit by empire building. It's not until carelessness, abuse, and real-world harm comes to introduce realism that people become more thoughtful and less insouciant about the costs - which are not all borne by the "bad guys".

Even worse, the land grabs are very difficult to reverse after the fact - ask any indigenous person.

Minimalist · Sep 13, 2019

IDnow facial biometrics to secure Lottoland against underage users

Online gaming and lottery company Lottoland has chosen IDnow to help transform its identification processes with facial biometrics to meet child protection requirements in a user-friendly way, according to a company announcement.
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https://www.biometricupdate.com/201...cs-to-secure-lottoland-against-underage-users

guest · Sep 13, 2019

ProtonMail: Why we oppose unregulated facial recognition surveillance
September 12, 2019
https://protonmail.com/blog/face-surveillance-moratorium/

Today, we’re joining other privacy advocates and businesses to support a moratorium on the government use of face surveillance in Massachusetts. This moratorium will give representatives time to prepare new laws that protect people’s civil rights and privacy.

As we have often said, we believe all technologies are neutral. It’s only good or bad depending on how you use it. Facial recognition technology can be put to positive purposes, like authenticating your mobile device or identifying photos of you posted on social media without your consent. But when used for face recognition surveillance, this technology can lead to discrimination and undermine freedom of expression.

Below, you can read our full letter to the Massachusetts legislature from our founder and CEO, Dr. Andy Yen. You can also read a policy briefing by the American Civil Liberties Union on face surveillance and the need for new regulations.
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Minimalist · Sep 17, 2019

First states upload data to national facial recognition system

Victoria will become one of the first two states to upload driver’s licence data into a national facial biometrics matching database in a bid to stamp out identity fraud.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/first-states-upload-data-to-national-facial-recognition-system-531084

guest · Sep 17, 2019

Gatwick Airport commits to facial recognition tech at boarding
September 17, 2019
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-49728301

The London airport said the technology should reduce queuing times but travellers would still need to carry passports.
Privacy campaigners are concerned.
On Tuesday, a spokeswoman for Gatwick told BBC News it had taken the decision, first reported by the Telegraph newspaper, after reviewing feedback from passengers in the earlier test.

"More than 90% of those interviewed said they found the technology extremely easy to use and the trial demonstrated faster boarding of the aircraft for the airline and a significant reduction in queue time for passengers," she said.
Consent concerns
Even so, one civil liberties group is worried travellers might not realise they can opt out.
"Our main concern... would be the issue of proper consent," said Ioannis Kouvakas, from Privacy International.

"Placing general or vague signs that merely let individuals know that this technology is being deployed, once individuals are already inside the check-in area, is inadequate, in our view, to satisfy the strict transparency and consent requirements imposed by data-protection laws.
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guest · Sep 18, 2019

A facial recognition ban is coming to the US, says an AI policy advisor
Bans in cities could spread to states, then up to Washington
September 18, 2019
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/...n-is-coming-to-the-us-says-ai-policy-advisor/

San Francisco and Oakland, California, and Somerville, Massachusetts, have outlawed certain uses of facial recognition technology, with Portland, Oregon, potentially soon to follow.

That’s just the beginning, according to Mutale Nkonde, a Harvard fellow and AI policy advisor. That trend will soon spread to states, and there will eventually be a federal ban on some uses of the technology, she said at MIT Technology Review’s EmTech conference.
“There will be legal challenges, and there will eventually be regulation,” he predicted.
Nkonde agreed this will happen in the US, too. “A constitutional right we have is innocent until proven guilty. Facial recognition could flip that idea around,” she said.
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guest · Sep 19, 2019

Sky Views: Lamb, wolf or beard: Facial recognition decides who you are
September 19, 2019
https://news.sky.com/story/sky-view...cial-recognition-decides-who-you-are-11813539

Ask yourself: are my features generic? Would my face be easily mistaken for someone else's? Could it confuse an artificial intelligence? You might never have asked yourself those questions, but, increasingly, they're being asked about you - because "lamb" is a term of art in biometric identification.
The idea is that some people's faces (or voices, or movements) are exceptionally similar to everyone else's, so as a result computers tend to get them mixed up. For reasons that are unclear, these outliers are known as "lambs".

The biometric zoo has been used in computer science since the late 1990s, but recently it's moved onto a new stage. On 4 September 2019, it was referred to in the High Court, as part of the judgement in the first ever case against the police use of live facial recognition, perhaps the most intrusive form of biometric identification ever deployed.

[...] South Wales Police failed to consider the discriminatory impact of its facial recognition system, despite its notorious tendency to mistake female faces and faces of colour.
In its evidence to the court, South Wales Police couldn't explain how it checked its Automated Facial Recognition (AFR) software to make sure it wasn't biased with respect to gender, ethnicity and age
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The dangers of mislabelling were vividly highlighted this week by ImageNet Roulette, an art project which shows how artificial intelligence sees the world. Upload a selfie into the system and it'll tell you how ImageNet - a dataset of 14 million annotated images that's regularly used to teach AIs what the world looks like - sees your face.
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guest · Sep 19, 2019

The dangers of mislabelling were vividly highlighted this week by ImageNet Roulette, an art project which shows how artificial intelligence sees the world.
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See how an AI system classifies you based on your selfie
ImageNet Roulette will take a stab at categorizing you, and it will fail
September 16, 2019
https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2019/...-classifier-web-tool-object-image-recognition

But it’s easy to forget that most AI right now is terribly stupid and only useful in narrow, niche domains for which its underlying software has been specifically trained, like playing an ancient Chinese board game or translating text in one language into another.

Ask your standard recognition bot to do something novel, like analyze and label a photograph using only its acquired knowledge, and you’ll get some comically nonsensical results. That’s the fun behind ImageNet Roulette, a nifty web tool built as part of an ongoing art exhibition on the history of image recognition systems.

“When we first started conceptualizing this exhibition over two years ago, we wanted to tell a story about the history of images used to ‘recognize’ humans in computer vision and AI systems. We weren’t interested in either the hyped, marketing version of AI nor the tales of dystopian robot futures,” Crawford told the Fondazione Prada museum in Milan, where Training Humans is featured.
It’s a worthy pursuit and a fascinating project, even if ImageNet Roulette represents the goofier side of it. That’s mostly because ImageNet, a renown training data set AI researchers have relied on for the last decade, is generally bad at recognizing people. It’s mostly an object recognition set, but it has a category for “People” that contains thousands of subcategories, each valiantly trying to help software do the seemingly impossible task of classifying a human being.

And guess what? ImageNet Roulette is super bad at it.
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guest · Sep 19, 2019

Facial recognition: ten reasons you should be worried about the technology
September 19, 2019
https://www.siliconrepublic.com/enterprise/facial-recognition-technology-concerns-problems

Facial recognition technology is spreading fast. Already widespread in China, software that identifies people by comparing images of their faces against a database of records is now being adopted across much of the rest of the world. It’s common among police forces but has also been used at airports, railway stations and shopping centres.
The rapid growth of this technology has triggered a much-needed debate.

As someone who researches the future of human rights, I share these concerns. Here are ten reasons why we should worry about the use of facial recognition technology in public spaces.
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hawki · Sep 20, 2019

"Home Depot And Lowe's Accused Of Scanning Millions Of Customers Faces...

According to the Cook County Record, two recent class action lawsuits accuse Home Depot and Lowe's of secretly using facial recognition to identify customers as soon as they enter their stores.

On Sept. 4, 2019, a group of plaintiffs simultaneously filed virtually identical class action complaints in Cook County Circuit Court in Chicago against Lowe’s and in federal court in Atlanta against Home Depot, accusing the retailers of violating the Illinois state law by “surreptitiously” scanning customers’ faces as they moved about the chains’ stores.

According to the Lowe's lawsuit, home improvement stores are secretly using facial recognition to identify everyone...

'Framed as a loss-prevention measure, these systems allow stores to follow customers, to identify particular individuals when they enter the store and, in some cases, to track shoppers across multiple stores and identify “suspicious” shopping activity.'...

...both Home Depot and Lowe's have secretly collected millions of customers faces and are sharing them with other stores, regardless of whether or not they have committed a crime."
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https://massprivatei.blogspot.com/2019/09/home-depot-and-lowes-accused-of.html

...

guest · Sep 21, 2019

Modi Govt’s Plans For Facial Recognition System Across India Raises Privacy Concerns
September 20, 2019
https://inc42.com/buzz/modi-govts-p...-system-across-india-raises-privacy-concerns/

The central government will open bids next month to build a centralised facial recognition surveillance system across India. The system will be linked up with a database of individual’s details ranging from passports to fingerprints. The new interface aims to help India’s police force identify criminals, missing people and dead bodies, according to a Bloomberg report.

The government has been pushing for the facial recognition system for the convenience of the defence forces and the law and order authorities.
However, the move has again raised concerns of the privacy enthusiasts in the country, which does not have any strong data protection bill or privacy law, Apar Gupta, executive director of Internet Freedom Foundation, told the publication.
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guest · Sep 21, 2019

Portland mayor says ‘exceptions can be made’ for potential widespread facial recognition ban
September 20, 2019
https://www.geekwire.com/2019/portl...-potential-widespread-facial-recognition-ban/

Some lawmakers and concerned citizens want Portland to blaze a facial recognition ban trail by outlawing private use of the technology. But the city’s mayor has signaled that even a full prohibition on police use is questionable.

In the City of Portland, no agencies use facial recognition systems, according to Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office. The same goes for the police department.
However, the mayor indicated that if the Portland Police Bureau were to use the controversial technology, he might not stand in the way.

“The Mayor understands that even with a ban in place, under certain circumstances, exceptions can be made.”
Police representatives who spoke at the meeting suggested the bureau might want access to data from facial recognition systems “post-hoc” or after a situation occurs, when conducting investigations, rather than in a real-time scenario.
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guest · Sep 22, 2019

mood said: ↑

CaixaBank customers can use their faces to withdraw money at ATMs
February 15, 2019
https://www.computerweekly.com/news...can-use-their-faces-to-withdraw-money-at-ATMs
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Next-generation ATM with face recognition and QR code reader to be installed at Seven Bank
September 22, 2019
https://japantoday.com/category/tec...-qr-code-reader-to-be-installed-at-seven-bank

Seven Bank Ltd and NEC Corp have developed a next-generation ATM, which has a facial recognition engine with the world's No. 1 certification accuracy. The ATM is to be installed and to replace old machines late this month.

In recent years, technological innovations such as FinTech have led to the creation of new financial services and the improvement of operational efficiency as financial institutions are required to respond to digitalization.
Taking into account the advances in biometrics, AI, IoT, and other technologies, this next-generation ATM is capable of face recognition for identity verification and settlement with QR codes.
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NEC: Japan's first demonstration test for opening bank accounts by face-authentication at ATMs

guest · Sep 23, 2019

Chinese subway stations now let you pay for tickets by scanning your face
September 23, 2019
https://thenextweb.com/world/2019/0...et-you-pay-for-tickets-by-scanning-your-face/

Now, it has debuted a system in its subway that lets you use your face as a ticket.
A report from South China Morning Post suggests the subway system in the southern city of Shenzhen has started using facial recognition technology to let folks over 60 years of age register themselves for free subway rides. Other cities such as Jinan, Shanghai, Qingdao, Nanjing, and Nanning are currently experimenting with this system.

The face recognition system is slowly gaining popularity at these stations. The report suggests over 500 commuters are paying fares by scanning their faces every day in the Jinan city.
In a climate in which mass surveillance is a growing concern worldwide, people in China are said to be accepting the idea of facial recognition as a mode of payment.
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guest · Sep 24, 2019

Facial Recognition Software: Where Are We Now?
September 24, 2019
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielnewman/2019/09/24/facial-recognition-software-where-are-we-now/

Every day, millions of us wake up and use the magic of facial recognition to unlock our phones and log in to any number of apps and games. But facial recognition holds so much more potential.

Not long again, facial recognition software was the next hot thing. But as recently as July, Oakland, California, became the third city to ban its government agencies from using facial recognition technology, following San Francisco, and Sommerville, Massachusetts. Experts expect more cities to follow suit. So, where does that leave the future of the technology?

Yes, there are still scary aspects to this technology, but I think the promise is huge. Before the technology is unleashed into the corporate world, companies need to fully understand it. They also need to be able to explain to users exactly what data they are looking at, what information is being stored and how it’s being used. Transparency will be the most important thing once this technology starts to see wide-spread adoption.
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guest · Sep 25, 2019

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said company working on facial recognition regulations
September 25, 2019
https://www.reuters.com/article/ama...-facial-recognition-regulations-idUSL2N26G264

Amazon.com Inc Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said the company’s public policy team is working on proposed regulations around facial recognition, a fledgling technology that has drawn criticism of the technology giant’s cloud computing unit.

“Our public policy team is actually working on facial recognition regulations, and it makes a lot of sense to regulate that,” Bezos said in a press gaggle in Seattle.
“It’s a perfect example of something that has really positive uses, so you don’t want to put the brakes on it. At the same time, there’s lots of potential for abuses with that kind of technology, and so you do want regulations.”
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deBoetie · Sep 26, 2019

"you don’t want to put the brakes on it"

Um, I DO want to put the brakes on it.

As for suppliers acting as regulators, that's had a great history.

Krusty · Sep 26, 2019

China's new 'super camera' can instantly pinpoint specific targets among tens of thousands of people

Scientists have unveiled a 500 megapixel cloud camera system in China that they say is capable of capturing the facial details of each individual in a crowd of tens of thousands of people, raising fears facial recognition monitoring could soon reach a new level.

The camera, which was revealed at China's International Industry Fair last week, was designed by Fudan University and Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The camera's resolution is five times more detailed than the human eye, and it is also equipped with artificial intelligence (AI), facial recognition, real-time monitoring and cloud computing technology, designers say.

All this means it can detect and identify human faces or other objects and instantly find specific targets even in a crowded stadium, Xiaoyang Zeng, one of the scientists who worked on the new technology, explained to reporters at the exhibition display.
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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-26/chinas-new-500-megapixel-super-camera/11539176

guest · Sep 26, 2019

Vimeo sued for storing faceprints of people without their say-so
September 26, 2019
https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/20...ng-faceprints-of-people-without-their-say-so/

You didn’t tell me that you’re collecting and storing my faceprint, you didn’t tell me why or for how long, you didn’t get my written OK to do it, and you haven’t told us how long you’re retaining our biometrics or how we can get you to nuke them, another Illinois resident has said in yet another proposed facial recognition class action lawsuit based on the state’s we’re-not-kidding-around biometrics law.

This one’s against the video-sharing, face-tagging website Vimeo.
The suit takes aim at Vimeo’s Magisto application: a short-form video creation platform purchased by Vimeo in April 2019 that uses facial recognition to automatically index the faces of people in videos so they can be face-tagged.
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The lawsuit claims that immediately after uploading videos and photos to the Magisto app, Vimeo analyzed the content by automatically locating and scanning Acaley’s face and by extracting “geometric data relating to the contours of his face and the distances between his eyes, nose, and ears” – data Vimeo used to create a unique template of his face.

Using that unique face template, Vimeo located and grouped together the imagery where Acaley showed up. Vimeo also used the face template to record his gender, age, race, and location, according to the complaint – all without his permission, “all in direct violation of the BIPA.”
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hawki · Sep 26, 2019

"Face masks to decoy t-shirts: The rise of anti-surveillance fashion

Artists and fashion designers are coming up with novel ways to stay private in public

LONDON, Sept 26 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - As top designers wrapped up London Fashion Week and made their way to Paris to grab the world's attention with their lavish creations, a group of artists in London were making their own fashion statement, in a bid to become invisible..."

http://news.trust.org/item/20190926043446-h9egt

guest · Sep 26, 2019

mood said: ↑

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said company working on facial recognition regulations
September 25, 2019
https://www.reuters.com/article/ama...-facial-recognition-regulations-idUSL2N26G264
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Amazon's plan for facial recognition laws faces skeptics
September 26, 2019
https://www.cnet.com/news/amazons-plan-for-facial-recognition-laws-faces-skeptics/

Bezos told reporters that his company is working on facial recognition legislation that it plans to propose to lawmakers, according to Recode and Reuters.
On Thursday, civil rights groups raised their concerns about Amazon's push, expressing skepticism at Bezos' statement. The American Civil Liberties Union said it was a "welcome sign" that Amazon recognizes the dangers of facial recognition, but said the tech giant needs to do more than propose legislation.

"Lawmakers should be skeptical of weak industry proposals that sacrifice individuals rights in the interest of profit."

Groups that have called out Amazon over Rekognition are also skeptical of any regulation that the company proposes.

"Amazon wants to write the laws governing facial recognition to make sure they're friendly to their surveillance-driven business model," Greer said.
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guest · Sep 27, 2019

TikTok’s creepy new feature lets you search for videos based on people’s faces
September 26, 2019
https://www.digitaltrends.com/socia...-recognition-video-face-search-feature-china/

You’ll soon be able to look up the faces featured in a TikTok clip. The ByteDance-owned short-form video app is testing a new reverse-image search tool in China. In addition to items such as clothes, the feature will allow you to select a face and browse other videos the person it belongs to appears in.

The way it’s built is similar to what U.S.-based companies like Google offer.
However, its scope isn’t restricted to simply objects. The feature can be employed to search for videos on TikTok based on the faces in them. This feature also suggests TikTok is harvesting its content for identifiable data.
As of now, it’s limited to the app’s Chinese version, but it’s expected to roll out to the rest of the world soon.
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guest · Sep 27, 2019

AI and facial recognition used for first time in job interviews in UK to find best applicants
September 27, 2019
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...ition-used-first-time-job-interviews-uk-find/

Artificial intelligence (AI) and face recognition technology is being used for the first time in job interviews in the UK to identify the best candidates.

Unilever, the consumer goods giant, is among companies using AI technology to analyse the language, tone and facial expressions of candidates when they are asked a set of identical job questions which they film on their mobile phone or laptop.
Hirevue, the US company which has developed the interview technology, claims it [...] provides a more reliable and objective indicator of future performance free of human bias.

Griff Ferris, Legal and Policy Officer for Big Brother Watch, said: "Using a faceless artificial intelligence system to conduct tens of thousands of interviews has really chilling implications for jobseekers.

"This algorithm will be attempting to recognise and measure the extreme complexities of human speech, body language and expression, which will inevitably have a detrimental effect on unconventional applicants.
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guest · Sep 27, 2019

Tech and police groups urge lawmakers not to ban facial recognition
September 27, 2019
https://www.seattletimes.com/busine...urge-lawmakers-not-to-ban-facial-recognition/

The question of who has the right to use facial recognition technology, and when, has taken a decidedly political turn in recent months. On one side of the debate, civil liberty and privacy groups have urged Congress, cities and states to crack down on government use of facial recognition technology.

Now, a coalition of law enforcement groups and technology companies is responding to a backlash against such tools by calling on lawmakers to provide oversight instead of bans.
On Thursday, 39 groups sent an open letter to Congress cautioning that “bans would keep this important tool out of the hands of law enforcement officers, making it harder for them to do their jobs efficiently, stay safe, and protect our communities.”

The coalition highlighted the positive ways police have used facial recognition technology, such as to find missing children and identify people involved in crimes.
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guest · Sep 29, 2019

mood said: ↑

TSA Is Testing Face Recognition at Airport Security Checkpoints in Las Vegas Now
August 28, 2019
https://gizmodo.com/tsa-is-testing-face-recognition-at-airport-security-che-1837675720
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Facial recognition technology tested at Las Vegas airport
September 29, 2019
https://www.reviewjournal.com/local...chnology-tested-at-las-vegas-airport-1859441/

The 30-day test in the TSA pre-check lane in Terminal 3 at McCarran began in late August and ended Wednesday.

The TSA assessed its ability to compare passengers’ photo taken at the checkpoint against an image taken from the passenger’s identity document. The administration collected passengers’ photos and biographic information from their identity document and temporarily retained it for subsequent technical analysis.

“We’re aware of the questions that the members of the public, nongovernmental organizations, members of Congress and others have raised about the technology,” Klein said.
Board member Travis LeBlanc said that aside from worries about possible biases coming into play in the system, the regulatory process still needs to unfold. That process will answer many of the questions surrounding the facial recognition technology.
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