TECH TALK: Facial recognition technology has its doubters, but it can be a force for good, says BILL MAGEE
Let’s face it, the cyber jury remains out on surveillance systems based on digital image recognition, with its lack of regulation, business and personal security issues as well as fears over mass invasion of privacy. Bottom line: we’re anxious, more than ever over what happens to our precious data. On this occasion our mugshot.
Half-a-century of development, from early computer-based “lab” experiments to today’s highly-sophisticated applications, has not brought about hoped for clarity on digital ID. Far from it, according to doubters. They’re not swayed by marketers endlessly hyping so-called “high vis” benefits of global surveillance systems.
Yet nothing can stop the exponential growth of facial recognition. New market data from interactive site tradingplatforms.com reveals an anticipated twofold expansion, in monetary terms, from £2.5 billion in 2020 to £6bn by 2025.
Image recognition is used by governments and private companies. Surveillance systems involve a daunting selection of interconnected sensors, tracking devices, alarms and access controls. Mostly invisible to the naked eye, connecting anything from that smartphone in your pocket to an array of sophisticated robotic applications.
All have one thing in common: endlessly gathering real-time information for innumerable databases, situated anywhere on the planet. One all-seeing highly visible example is the proliferation of CCTV checking 24/7 on our everyday lives.
Facial recognition has been described as the new security frontier, the future of authentication. Read biometric technology, pinning down a person’s physiological characteristics, using such tech as retina scans and fingerprint mapping.
Have you ever wondered exactly what happens to your details when going through airport customs?
Systems employed by security services to locate missing persons or detect financial fraud are matched against templates stored in databases that have been described as opaque, some say shady.
Harvard professor Shoshana Zuboff claims “Big Tech” companies – such as Apple, Amazon and Microsoft – readily collect, harvest and exploit our commercial and personal information, not only to predict our behaviour but influence and modify it.
Scottish Privacy Forum, an independent body of senior academics, practitioners and policymakers, claims individuals have “limited opportunities” to opt out of the ever-growing collection and sharing of their personal information.
SPF calls for a better understanding of the ethics, impact and consequences of facial recognition, especially in uncertain times, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. City, commercial and political pressures have combined, some say hastily, pushing for a post-pandemic “normality”.
Ironically, it’s the pandemic that’s likely to rescue the reputation of image recognition systems.
ScotlandIS highlights Purview Services’ track-and-trace facial recognition and thermal imaging that detects individuals with high temperatures and infection, especially advantageous at large gatherings where anyone detected is instantly identified and diverted by officials.
The World Health Organisation claims such digital surveillance systems act as an “early warning” of further pandemic variants coming our way – a clear benefit that has emerged ahead of a much-anticipated eight-country digital identity working group, including the UK, Singapore, Netherlands and Israel, that is seen as a model for transparency, security, privacy and preservation of data.
It appears face recognition is here to stay.
Leave a Reply