The Dangers of Facial Recognition Technology
Identifying strangers has been an ongoing process for centuries now. From woodcutting to paper flyers, from hand drawings to photos and videos, the need to identify strangers has always been considered vital. A few decades ago, however, linking faces with names was a time-consuming process, which required looking through heaps of books and records and match them with the data one had, such as mug shots, sketches and other visuals, along with talking to people to identify the target person.
But in the past few years, cameras have seen numerous advancements. Cameras now are not just photos and video taking devices but human identification systems. Nowadays, smartphones have high-powered cameras which have human identification capabilities, to be used in activities such as photo-tagging and unlocking smartphones. These features make your smartphone’s camera a facial recognition tool.
Simply put, facial recognition can be termed as a security measure generally used for digital verification of a person’s identity, through an image or through a number of features stored in a database. While this technology is not new and has been around for many years, the ease of access and numerous applications are creating a number of opportunities, along with a plethora of issues. If this technology is used ethically, it can act as a public safety unit. On the other hand, however, there exist a number of risks which can result in catastrophic malpractices. These include data misuse, loss of privacy and potential identity theft leading to scams.
Below we discuss four dangers of facial recognition technology, which can prove to be fatal in the long run.
# The loss of privacy
Whilst many people believe that privacy is nothing more than a myth created to keep the millennial generation engrossed, but a majority of people believe in privacy, and facial recognition will target the same concept. Facial recognition software when leveraged for law enforcement is an idea supported by the masses, but it can also be used for illegal and forbidden surveillance. The technology can further be used to track your location and even pinpoint you in public using street cameras. This puts your privacy in danger and it can be used for all the wrong reasons. In the hands of the wrong person, this technology can act as a blackmailing tool as scammers will have access to your location at all times.
# Data Theft
In this day and age of technology, who has the key to the chest containing your data is the real question. At the same time when facial recognition technology can help reduce the crime rate and act as a counter-terrorism tool, what we fail to think of is the large pool of data being collected in each scan. If you are being scanned, then the information is being stored somewhere. This information in the wrong hands can prove to be disastrous.
# Increase in Crime Opportunities
Imagine you live alone in your apartment and have to go on a tour for seven days. Scammers can scan your face from leaving your house, reaching the airport, boarding the plane and then landing at your destination. Now the scammers know that you are not home as you are on a trip to the other side of the country. This helps scammers and thieves target your home for a burglary. This is just one of many examples that may be a reality when facial recognition reaches widespread usage. Instead of reducing crime, there might be a chance that facial recognition gives rise to an increase in crime opportunities and have an adverse effect.
# Identity Theft
The storage of facial features in smartphone invites hackers, who will be looking to duplicate people’s faces to move past facial recognition systems. There have been multiple attempts to break the system in the past all proved to be futile, as the technology has been difficult to crack, as compared to hacking fingerprints and moving past voice recognition. But there have been developments. Last year, German hackers successfully tricked a Samsung smartphone iris scanner using a picture of the device owner, along with a contact lens. The thing to note here is that, it happened just a month after it was shipped to public.
Security experts from around the world expressed their concern over the hack as iris exposure is far higher than fingerprints in the real world. Many even went on to suggest that to reduce exposure to such hacks, users should stick to the traditional methods of phone security, which are a four digit pin or a pattern. Experts also indicated that a high-resolution picture from the internet is enough for the hackers to create a replica of the iris, which may help them, bypass security measures on one’s phone. I facial recognition technology is implemented comprehensively, it may prove to be one large database of high-resolution images and videos of people, which can help hackers more than it helps law enforcement agencies.
