Cops to Get Facial Recognition Devices; Will They Need Warrants to Use Them? Privacy Law Posted Jul 13, 2011 6:38 AM CDT By Debra Cassens Weiss Police departments in several states are getting new high-tech devices that can scan irises, recognize faces and collect fingerprints. The devices, made by BI2 Technologies, are attached to an iPhone for immediate searches of criminal databases, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) reports. The development is “raising significant questions about privacy and civil liberties,” the story says. Currently the technology, called “Moris” for Mobile Offender Recognition and Information System, is used by the military to identify insurgents. But B12 has contracts to sell about 1,000 of the Moris devices to 40 police agencies, the story says.
The Wall Street Journal interviewed George Washington University law professor Orin Kerr about the legal implications. Whether a warrant will be needed to use facial recognition or an iris scan is “a gray area of the law,” Kerr said. Legal Blog Watch. « Judge Shows Burglar Some Georgia Justice | Main | Blawger/Candidate Suggests Giving Your Law License to God, but Not Your Vote? » Apple Wants to Spy on You All Hi-Tech-Like Here I am, seriously considering switching from a BlackBerry to an iPhone when my contract runs out next week, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation has to go and ruin it for me. On the EFF Deeplinks blog yesterday, Julie Samuels posted about Apple's patent application for technology, which Samuels dubs "traitorware," that will enable Apple to "secretly collect, store and potentially use sensitive biometric information about you.
" The details are sort of frightening. The patent application is entitled "SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR IDENTIFYING UNAUTHORIZED USERS OF AN ELECTRONIC DEVICE. " But if Samuels is correct, such an invention would not be so limited. Basically, it sounds like when you let the guy from your information technology department "remote in" to your PC to fix some issue with your Word macros. Seeks Public Comments on Facial Recognition Technology. Federal Trade Commission staff is seeking public comments on the issues raised at a recent FTC workshop exploring facial recognition technology and the privacy and security implications raised by its increasing use.
The December 8, 2011, public workshop, "Face Facts: A Forum on Facial Recognition Technology," focused on the current and future commercial applications of facial detection and recognition technologies, and explored an array of current uses of these technologies, possible future uses and benefits, and potential privacy and security concerns. The agenda for the workshop can be found here, and an archived webcast of the proceedings is viewable here. The deadline for filing comments is January 31, 2012, and instructions for filing can be found near the bottom of this press release.
Facial detection and recognition technologies have been adopted in a variety of new contexts, ranging from online social networks to digital signs and mobile apps. Privacy and Security Fanatic: Face Detection Technology Tool Now Detects Your Moods Too. When Facebook automatically enabled facial recognition for photo tagging purposes last month, the company was forced to apologize after the backlash from angry users who had their privacy invaded by default yet again. Was that anger caused by Facebook changing the privacy settings, or because the photo tagging used facial recognition software, or a bit of both?
Face.com, a face detection and recognition service, believes their software is cool, not creepy, and that people have overcome privacy concerns about a technology that can identify faces . . . and the moods on those faces as well. After Face.com launched its free API last year, the company's service was called the "facial recognition software that will put a name to every photograph in the Internet. " Developers have been using Face.com's Photo Finder to allow people to "search for anyone" on the web with "90% accuracy on social networking sites. " Moods & Facial Expressions! As Facial Recognition Improves, New Privacy Controversies Await. If you think recently-unveiled products like the Facebook Timeline and Amazon's cloud-powered Silk Web browser have raised privacy issues, an innovation that lies just around the corner could blow them both out of the water.
Facial recognition technology has been around for decades, but until recently it's been slow, inefficient and largely limited to proprietary implementations, such as databases used by law enforcement. That could all be about to change, and the results are bound to send shivers down the spines of digital privacy advocates. PittPatt, software developed at Carnegie Mellon University (and now owned by Google), is just one example of software that can quickly identify individuals in a photograph, matching their likeness with other images of them found online and then scouring the Web for other information about the person. Google is well aware of the risks. Apple and Facebook Join the Facial Recognition Game (Carefully) What do you think about mobile facial recognition? Opinions and recommendations - Justice. Facial recognition may need regulating. News By Grant Gross August 13, 2012 06:00 AM ET Computerworld - Congress might need to pass legislation to limit the way government agencies and private companies use facial recognition technology to identify people, a U.S. senator said recently.
The growing use of facial recognition tools raises serious privacy concerns, said Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee's privacy subcommittee. During a subcommittee hearing, Franken called on the FBI and Facebook to change the way they use facial recognition technology. No existing U.S. laws limit the use of facial recognition tools in the public or private sectors, said people who testified before the subcommittee.
The FBI is testing facial recognition tools in criminal cases, said Jerome Pender, a deputy assistant director in the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division. Others who testified said the technology is a useful tool that helps police arrest the correct people more quickly. EU Weighs in on Privacy in Face Recognition Apps. Photo Tag Suggest, Tag My Face, Klik, FaceLook, Age Meter, FaceLock, and Visidon AppLock—the list grows by the day. These recent online and mobile applications apply face recognition technology to photos of individuals to identify or categorize them or to verify their identities. While often fun and convenient for users, these applications also raise privacy concerns for the individuals whose data is collected and used in the process. Face recognition in online applications is particularly problematic as personal data in these applications is sometimes used out of context by employers and law enforcement.
Therefore, European privacy officials’ opinion recommending various privacy practices for these applications could not have come at a better time. Last summer, the Article 29 Working Party—an advisory body formed under the EU Data Protection Directive—initiated an investigation into this issue in response to Facebook’s European launch of its face recognition technology. Why you should be worried about facial-recognition technology | Internet & Media. It could be time for you to start worrying about what Facebook might be doing with the identity information collected on you and "tagged" photos.
The Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information in Germany has announced legal action against the company and charged that Facebook's use of facial-recognition technology is illegal. In addition, the Federation of German Consumer Organizations is ordering Facebook to stop giving third-party applications users' data without their consent. If the social network doesn't do this by Sept. 4, the FGCO will sue. Earlier this month, Norway also announced that it is looking into the legality of the social network's use of face-matching technology. Unlike the United States, Germany has regulations that allow Internet users control over their data. Facebook: facial recognition profiles without user consent Franken stated that any law-enforcement gains from the program could come at a high cost to civil liberties.
Calling for a moratorium on SM facial recognition | Lockstep. Further update 27 Nov 2012: It is reported that new facial recognition services invite you to upload photos to find look alikes in pornography. That is, you can find out if the "girl next door" has a secret life. It's such an egregious threat to privacy that I call again for a moratorium on facial recognition. Mine will not be a popular nor politically correct view, but I reckon this technology is so intrinsically unsafe that we should suspend its use while we agree on ways to control its application.
I'd like to see a moratorium on commercial facial recognition. It should be of acute concern that photos originally uploaded for personal use are being rendered personally identifiable, and put to secondary purposes by social media companies, who are silent in their Privacy Policies about what those purposes might be. It’s clear that sites like Facebook have facial recognition bots poring over their image libraries, because this is how they generate tag suggestions.
Does Facial Recognition Technology Mean the End of Privacy? | Endless Innovation. At the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas, researchers from Carnegie Mellon demonstrated how the same facial recognition technology used to tag Facebook photos could be used to identify random people on the street. This facial recognition technology, when combined with geo-location, could fundamentally change our notions of personal privacy. In Europe, facial recognition technology has already stirred up its share of controversy, with German regulators threatening to sue Facebook up to half-a-million dollars for violating European privacy rules. But it's not only Facebook - both Google (with PittPatt) and Apple (with Polar Rose) are also putting the finishing touches on new facial recognition technologies that could make it easier than ever before to connect our online and offline identities. If the eyes are the window to the soul, then your face is the window to your personal identity. And the Carnegie Mellon technology used to show this?
The Future of Privacy: Facial Recognition, Public Facts, and 300 Million Little Brothers. It’s been a pleasure to blog this week. I hope you’ve enjoyed this conversation and I’d love to continue it. If you’re interested in reading more, check out our book, Wild West 2.0. It is the most-discussed Internet policy book of 2010 (Jimmy Wales called it “an invaluable guide” to the “brave new world of the Internet”) and it sold out Amazon.com once already. Or, contact me directly through my site at davidcthompson.com. This week, we’ve discussed the “Wild West 2.0” metaphor for the Internet. What will widespread surveillance and facial recognition do to privacy? It’s always been the law in the U.S. that images you take in public are yours to use non-commercially.
There are good reasons for this policy, ranging from a basic respect for the free press and free expression, to the First Amendment. But, today, facial recognition is quickly becoming available on a wide scale. The results of just one company unleashing photo recognition on the Internet could be huge. Obama Administration to Look into Facial Recognition Technology. YouTube Videos Tweets Comments The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is to hold parleys soon regarding what is seen as a very potent technology.
Facial recognition technology is a process of pinpointing individuals for all sorts of purposes. It spells dire results for people who value their privacy and confidentiality. Especially, the commercial consequences seem to be a source of trouble in future times when this technology will have reached its apogee. The White House especially took an interest in this new force which has both good and bad consequences. The technology is a consumer target tool as well as a creative strategy enhancer for economically viable enterprises. And of course it serves to identify individuals online or offline. However, there are hurdles in the way of its complete acceptance. Facial recognition technology has been employed in surveillance systems, Internet services, gaming devices and smart phones. Source: The Verge Updates Tweets.