Problems of Widespread Adoption of Facial Recognition Technology
By: David Cadelina @TechWarn.com
Challenges Impeding the Widespread Adoption of Facial Recognition Technology
Facial recognition is a biometric technology designed to identify and verify the identity of an individual using their face. Face detection systems can be used to identify a person's face using images, videos, or in real-time. The facial recognition industry represents one of the fastest-growing sectors in the world. Industry projections show that the facial recognition market will be worth a whopping $10.19 billion by 2025, a 100% increase from its current value.
How exactly does facial recognition technology work? Face detection technology exploits the uniqueness of the human face to identify people. Face detection software analyses your facial characteristics and matches them to a facial database to identify who you are.
Who Uses Facial Recognition Technology?
Facial recognition tech has a lot of use cases. Marketers can use face detection technology to define audiences in their advertising campaigns. Shops and shopping malls can use the technology to identify and catch shoplifters and enhance security within their premises. Smartphone manufacturers such as Apple are integrating facial recognition technology into their devices. For instance, you can unlock your iPhone X with your face.
Governments are increasingly using facial recognition technology in their fight against terrorism. For instance, the US government uses face detection systems in international airports to monitor people coming in and going out of the country.
Government agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and several law enforcement groups in the US are using facial recognition technology in pursuit of their mandate.
Challenges Facing Facial Recognition Technology
Facial recognition technology has been getting a lot of bad press lately, for a lot of reasons. Don't get me wrong; the technology presents a lot of benefits for the government, businesses, and individuals. But there's a flip side to all the good that facial recognition technology can help us achieve. Many people are still wary of this progressive technology.
Concerns have been raised pertaining to the use of facial recognition technology by government agencies and law enforcement groups. Here are some of the challenges slowing down the growth of facial recognition technology.
Potential Misuse of Data
Privacy is by far the biggest issue when it comes to the use of facial recognition technology by the government. Admittedly, this technology has massive potential when it comes to policing and crime prevention.
While the vast majority of people acknowledge the benefits of using facial recognition technology, many are not confident that facial recognition data collected by law enforcement and other government agencies will be used ethically.
The use of facial recognition technology for mass surveillance in China has raised fresh concerns in different parts of the world. It shows that people can be picked out of a group, followed, and punished for taking part in a peaceful protest.
As a result, several cities in the United States have placed bans on the use of facial recognition technology by government agencies fearing the impact on civil liberties. San Francisco was among the first cities to ban the use of face detection systems in the US.
Inaccuracies in Identification
The concern about the misuse of data and mass surveillance assumes that facial recognition technology works perfectly. However, as it has been demonstrated time and again, face detection technology is far from perfect. Facial recognition technology hasn't always been able to identify faces with 100 percent accuracy. Errors in identification usually stem from issues such as low image quality, poor lighting, or lack of information on the database, making it difficult for the software to analyze a person's facial features correctly.
Facial recognition has performed very poorly when it comes to the identification of persons of color. Rekognition, a cloud-based facial recognition software by Amazon, incorrectly identified 24 professional athletes and 28 members of the US Congress as individuals with a criminal past. Concerned that facial recognition technology will lead to wrongful arrest and conviction of minorities, civil rights groups are calling for bans on the use of face detection tech by law enforcement groups.
Breach of Privacy
Facial recognition technology identifies an individual by analyzing their facial features against images in a database. Your right to privacy gives you complete control over your personal information and how it's used. Stored personal data, including facial data, can be shared. That's one of the main causes of concern when it comes to facial recognition. People will no longer have control of their personal data, which infringes on the basic right to privacy. Privacy is at the top of the list when it comes to facial recognition controversies around the world.
Facial recognition technology also gives the government immense surveillance capabilities. Information relating to your daily activities, where you go may no longer be private as government agencies have the ability to monitor your activities and track you down anywhere, anytime. In other words, the government will be able to spy on unsuspecting citizens without repercussions. The immense potential of facial recognition technology when it comes to surveillance makes people uncomfortable.
Cybersecurity is also a huge threat to privacy. Recent events have shown that facial recognition technology is also vulnerable to data breaches, which have become all too common these days.
In the United Kingdom, a data breach targeting a biometric system used by banks left facial recognition and fingerprint information belonging to over 1 million people exposed. In the United States, facial recognition data collected by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) was stolen from the agency's database. These data breaches highlight vulnerabilities in the security of facial recognition databases.
Closing Thoughts
Facial recognition technology has a lot of potential in different sectors of the economy, as well as the government. All over the world, governments are implementing — or are planning to implement — facial recognition technology in policing and crime prevention. But the potential misuse of data and privacy issues present huge challenges. Errors in identification, triggered by racial and gender discrimination, further demonstrate that facial recognition technology is not ready for use in law enforcement.
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