Security News
The company now says its masked facial recognition program has reached 95 percent accuracy in lab tests, and even claims that it is more accurate in real life, where its cameras take multiple photos of a person if the first attempt to identify them fails. Counter-intuitively, training facial recognition algorithms to recognize masked faces involves throwing data away.
In the midst of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, facial recognition technology is being adopted globally as a way to track the virus' spread. But privacy experts worry that, in the rush to implement COVID-19 tracking capabilities, important and deep rooted issues around data collection and storage, user consent, and surveillance will be brushed under the rug. "While facial recognition technology provides a fast and zero-contact method for identifying individuals, the technology is not without risks. Primarily, individuals scanned by facial recognition services need to be aware of how their data is being used."
In the midst of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, facial recognition technology is being adopted globally as a way to track the virus' spread. But privacy experts worry that, in the rush to implement COVID-19 tracking capabilities, important and deep rooted issues around data collection and storage, user consent, and surveillance will be brushed under the rug. "While facial recognition technology provides a fast and zero-contact method for identifying individuals, the technology is not without risks. Primarily, individuals scanned by facial recognition services need to be aware of how their data is being used."
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed suit the Department of Homeland Security over its use of facial recognition technology in airports, decrying the government's "Extraordinarily dangerous path" to normalize facial surveillance as well as its secrecy in making specific details of the plan public. "Our lawsuit seeks to make public the government's contracts with airlines, airports, and other entities pertaining to the use of face recognition at the airport and the border; policies and procedures concerning the acquisition, processing, and retention of our biometric information; and analyses of the effectiveness of facial recognition technology," Ashley Gorski, a state attorney for the ACLU, wrote in a blog post about the lawsuit published online Thursday.
This week we discuss the latest in the Clearview AI debacle, get more tales from the ransomware swamp and discover how often our smart speakers are listening to us. Host Anna Brading is joined by Sophos experts Paul Ducklin and Peter Mackenzie, and me!
Canada's privacy watchdog on Friday announced an investigation into a US software startup reportedly capable of matching images of unknown faces to photos it mined from millions of websites and social media networks. In a statement, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner said Clearview AI's collection and stockpiling of more than three billion photos potentially violated Canadian law, if the photos were obtained without permission.
On Wednesday, the state senate passed a bill - Senate Bill 6280 - that would prohibit state and local government agencies from using facial recognition in most instances, including. The latest version of the bill specifies that at least 90 days before government agencies adopt a new facial recognition technology, they must inform the public about the technology in question - in detail.
After running real-world tests of Android's facial recognition on a Pixel 4, Jack Wallen shares his theory of why some people are so concerned about facial recognition. My TechRepublic article How to enable facial recognition in the BitWarden mobile password manager wound up receiving feedback about Android facial recognition-not BitWarden.
The European Union appears to be moving toward dropping a temporary ban on the use of facial recognition technology in public places, according to news reports. Some technology experts had said that a temporary ban on the use of facial recognition in public places would be impractical and ineffective.
Facebook has agreed to pay $550 million to settle a class action lawsuit alleging the company violated Illinois law in collecting data for a facial recognition tool without users' consent. The settlement - revealed by company executives during a Wednesday earnings call - came after Facebook failed this month in its efforts to get the U.S. Supreme court to throw out the lawsuit.