Facial Recognition Technology
Facial recognition: What is it?
- An individual can be recognised and distinguished using biometric technology called facial recognition by using their unique facial features.
- The AFRS operates by keeping an extensive database of images and videos of people’s faces. Then, to locate a match and identify the person, a new image of an unidentified person is compared to the current database. This image is frequently collected from CCTV footage.
- “Neural networks” refers to the artificial intelligence method utilised for pattern recognition and matching.
Facial recognition advantages:
Heightened security:
- The 3D biometric system and infrared cameras can improve the efficiency of facial recognition.
- Monitoring staff and visitors might help secure a company’s property.
- Facial recognition will make it simpler to find any trespassers, robbers, or other intruders.
- On a governmental level, facial recognition can assist in the identification of terrorists or any other criminals with simply a face scan. The extra benefit is that the technology cannot be hacked because there is nothing to take or alter, unlike a password, for example.
- When it comes to private use, face recognition can be a security tool for locking private devices and for private security cameras.
Accelerated processing:
- It only takes a second or less to recognise a face, which is quite advantageous for businesses.
- Companies want technology that is quick and secure in the age of frequent cyberattacks and sophisticated hacking tools. Facial recognition allows for a quick and effective verification of a person because it is virtually instantaneous. Another benefit is that this technology is difficult to trick.
Identification automation:
- Security guards previously had to manually identify a person, which took too long and had low accuracy. However, today’s facial recognition technology is totally independent from other methods of identification, takes only a few seconds, and is highly precise.
- The level of facial identification accuracy was greatly increased, and it became very difficult to trick, thanks to the development of 3D facial recognition technology and the use of infrared cameras.
Continuous integration:
- Integration of the facial recognition technology is very simple. The majority of facial recognition solutions are compatible with the majority of security software, therefore there is no additional cost for integration. A true win-win situation.
Decreases the quantity of touch points:
- Compared to other security measures like fingerprinting, facial recognition requires less human resources. Additionally, it doesn’t call for direct or physical contact with others. Instead, it automates and streamlines the process using AI.
- Additionally, it reduces the number of touch points needed to unlock doors, unlock smartphones, withdraw money from an ATM, or carry out any other task that typically calls for a PIN, password, or key.
Fewer germs:
- Facial recognition requires no physical touch, so travellers won’t need to reach for their hand sanitizer at every other airport checkpoint where they are asked to provide identification.
Helps locate the missing:
- Law enforcement agencies have utilised facial recognition to locate missing persons and missing children.
- Facial recognition technology can even assist locate someone who has been gone for a long time when used in conjunction with ageing software that projects how the child might look years from now.
Improves medical care:
- The identification of genetic abnormalities is an unexpected application of facial recognition technology.
- In some circumstances, facial recognition software may detect how particular genetic mutations created a particular disease by looking at tiny facial attributes. In comparison to conventional genetic testing, the method might be quicker and less expensive.
Face recognition technology’s drawbacks:
Data Retention:
- Since there is so much data in the world today, data storage is worth its weight in gold. Everything needs space, whether it’s a really high-quality movie or 100,000 faces to store. This indicates that only roughly 10 to 25 percent of footage must be processed for facial recognition systems to be effective.
- Many businesses use a large number of computers to process information and shorten processing times in order to overcome this. However, this barrier will remain in place until technology advances dramatically.
Recognizability vulnerability:
- There is no denying that facial recognition technology is incredibly accurate.
- In addition, a little adjustment to the camera position or even a change in look will inevitably result in a mistake.
- Whether or not a face is processed depends heavily on the camera angle. Multiple angles, such as profile, frontal, 45 degrees, and more, are required for a facial recognition system to fully recognise a face in order to ensure the highest accuracy, which will undoubtedly pose some issues.
Threatens the privacy of individuals and society:
- The authorities is able to find the crooks with the aid of this technology. However, it is also capable of finding anyone at any time, anyplace.
- One serious drawback of facial recognition technology is the potential threat to individual privacy. People dislike having their faces taken down and kept in a database for a hypothetical future use.
- Real-time face recognition surveillance by police enforcement is so fraught with privacy concerns that some localities, including Cambridge, Massachusetts, and San Francisco, California, have outlawed its usage. Police in these situations are permitted to use recorded security camera footage, but not real-time facial recognition software.
Absence of rules in face recognition systems using AI:
- There is no specific policy or set of rules in place by any government in the world to control the use of touch-free biometric attendance systems. Due to the potential damage this technology poses to humans, certain towns and regions around the world have already prohibited it. While the use of face recognition-based attendance systems is already in use in several regions of the world, these areas are unregulated. Consequently, the data of a huge number of people is already in danger.
Implementation is expensive:
- The technology is not free. To ensure accuracy and speed, facial recognition software is incredibly sophisticated and needs the best cameras.
Still under development:
- Although facial recognition software is extremely sophisticated, it isn’t flawless. In terms of determining race or gender, AI is still not entirely reliable. Additionally, many tools have difficulty tracking changes in appearance, such as changes in weight, new hairstyles, and even the growth of facial hair.
Violates one’s right to liberty:
- Facial recognition is frequently used to spy on residents and apprehend those regarded troublemakers in nations with restricted civil liberties like China, the UAE, North Korea, Iran, and Iraq.
Data vulnerabilities are produced:
- Facial recognition data storage is also a source of worry due to the vulnerability of these databases.
- In the past, hackers have gained access to databases holding facial scans that have been gathered and used by banks, police forces, and defence companies.
Enables fraud and other crimes to happen:
- Lawbreakers can even commit crimes against innocent victims using facial recognition technologies. To perpetrate identity fraud, they can gather people’s private information, including pictures and videos taken via facial scans and kept in databases.
- With this knowledge, a thief may open bank accounts, take out credit cards and other loans, open bank accounts in the victim’s name, or even use the victim’s identity to commit crimes.
- Beyond fraud, criminals can use facial recognition technology to harass or pursue victims.
- For instance, stalkers could use a photograph taken in a public setting to conduct reverse image searches to learn more about their targets and find out who they are and where they reside.
- Additionally, because technology crime develops more quickly than the law, victims may be harmed before the behaviour is labelled as criminal.
Way Ahead:
- Even in public areas, the Supreme Court declared that privacy is a basic right in the Puttaswamy decision. And if these rights must be violated, the government must demonstrate that the activity is legal, essential, proportionate to the necessity for the interference, and pursues a legitimate goal.
