Facial recognition is becoming a controversial feature in the United States, as it’s being applied not only in commercial and advertising environments, but also in security services.
FBI is very interested in this kind of technology and aims “to collect as much biometric data as possible [. . .] and to make this information accessible to all levels of law enforcement, including International agencies.” Accordingly, it has been working “aggressively to build biometric databases that are comprehensive and international in scope.”
The american agency recognizes that the goal is to use this data to allow law enforcement agencies identify and track subjects using “public datasets”, which could include publicly available photographs, such as those posted on Facebook or elsewhere on the Internet.
EFF Staff Attorney Jennifer Lynch testified that although “many Americans may not realize it, they are already (at least 54% of them) in a face recognition database.”
Accordingly, Senator Al Franken declared recently that “The dimensions of our faces are as unique to us as our fingerprints. And right now technology exists that gives the government and companies the ability to figure out your name and other personal information about you with nothing more than a photograph.”
Source: NetworkWorld
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