Tag • #facial recognition

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How Israel uses facial recognition systems in Gaza and beyond

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Friday, 19 April - 17:16

Amnesty International researcher Matt Mahmoudi discusses the IDF’s use of the techonology as a tool of mass surveillance

Governments around the world have increasingly turned to facial recognition systems in recent years to target suspected criminals and crack down on dissent. The recent boom in artificial intelligence has accelerated the technology’s capabilities and proliferation, much to the concern of human rights groups and privacy advocates who see it as a tool with immense potential for harm.

Few countries have experimented with the technology as extensively as Israel, which the New York Times recently reported has developed new facial recognition systems and expanded its surveillance of Palestinians since the start of the Gaza war. Israeli authorities deploy the system at checkpoints in Gaza, scanning the faces of Palestinians passing through and detaining anyone with suspected ties to Hamas. The technology has also falsely tagged civilians as militants, one Israeli officer told the Times. The country’s use of facial recognition is one of the new ways that artificial intelligence is being deployed in conflict, with rights groups warning this marks an escalation in Israel’s already pervasive targeting of Palestinians via technology.

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Leisure centres scrap biometric systems to keep tabs on staff amid UK data watchdog clampdown

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Tuesday, 16 April - 05:00

Firms such as Serco and Virgin Active pull facial recognition and fingerprint scan systems used to monitor staff attendance

Dozens of companies including national leisure centre chains are reviewing or pulling facial recognition technology and fingerprint scanning used to monitor staff attendance after a clampdown by the UK’s data watchdog.

In February, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) ordered a Serco subsidiary to stop using biometrics to monitor the attendance of staff at leisure centres it operates and also issued more stringent guidance on the use of facial recognition and fingerprint scanning.

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Shoplifting crackdown to include £55m for facial recognition tools in England and Wales

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Wednesday, 10 April - 06:00

Mobile units will be deployed on high streets to identify wanted people – including repeat offenders

The government is investing more than £55m in expanding facial recognition systems – including vans that will scan crowded high streets – as part of a renewed crackdown on shoplifting.

The scheme was announced alongside plans for tougher punishments for serial or abusive shoplifters in England and Wales, including being forced to wear a tag to ensure they do not revisit the scene of their crime, under a new standalone criminal offence of assaulting a retail worker.

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Episode 5: The white mask

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Monday, 18 March - 05:00

In January 2020, Robert Williams was arrested by Detroit police for a crime he had not committed. The officers were acting on a tip not from a witness or informant. In fact, not from a person at all

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Canadian university vending machine error reveals use of facial recognition

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Friday, 23 February - 18:24

University of Waterloo dispenser displays facial recognition message despite no prior indication it was monitoring students

A malfunctioning vending machine at a Canadian university has inadvertently revealed that a number of them have been using facial recognition technology in secret.

Earlier this month, a snack dispenser at the University of Waterloo showed an error message – Invenda.Vending.FacialRecognition.App.exe – on the screen.

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Serco ordered to stop using facial recognition technology to monitor staff

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Friday, 23 February - 16:07

Biometric data of more than 2,000 staff at 38 leisure centres was unlawfully processed to check attendance, watchdog finds

Britain’s data watchdog has ordered a Serco subsidary to stop using facial recognition technology and fingerprint scanning to monitor the attendance of staff at the leisure centres it operates.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) found that the biometric data of more than 2,000 employees had been unlawfully processed at 38 centres managed by Serco Leisure to check up on their attendance.

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New compact facial-recognition system passes test on Michelangelo’s David

news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Monday, 19 February - 22:53 · 1 minute

A new lens-free and compact system for facial recognition scans a bust of Michelangelo’s David and reconstructs the image using less power than existing 3D surface imaging systems.

Enlarge / A new lens-free and compact system for facial recognition scans a bust of Michelangelo’s David and reconstructs the image using less power than existing 3D-surface imaging systems. (credit: W-C Hsu et al., Nano Letters, 2024)

Facial recognition is a common feature for unlocking smartphones and gaming systems , among other uses. But the technology currently relies upon bulky projectors and lenses, hindering its broader application. Scientists have now developed a new facial recognition system that employs flatter, simpler optics that also requires less energy, according to a recent paper published in the journal Nano Letters. The team tested their prototype system with a 3D replica of Michelangelo's famous David sculpture, and found it recognized the face as well as existing smartphone facial recognition.

The current commercial 3D imaging systems in smartphones (like Apple's iPhone) extract depth information via structured light. A dot projector uses a laser to project a pseudorandom beam pattern onto the face of the person looking at a locked screen. It does so thanks to several other built-in components: a collimator, light guide, and special lenses (known as diffractive optical elements, or DOEs) that break the laser beam apart into an array of some 32,000 infrared dots. The camera can then interpret that projected beam pattern to confirm the person's identity.

Packing in all those optical components like lasers makes commercial dot projectors rather bulky, so it can be harder to integrate for some applications such as robotics and augmented reality, as well as the next generation of facial recognition technology. They also consume significant power. So Wen-Chen Hsu, of National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University and the Hon Hai Research Institute in Taiwan, and colleagues turned to ultrathin optical components known as metasurfaces for a potential solution. These metasurfaces can replace bulkier components for modulating light and have proven popular for depth sensors, endoscopes, tomography. and augmented reality systems, among other emerging applications.

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Unproven AI face scans may estimate age for porn access in UK

news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 5 December - 19:27

Unproven AI face scans may estimate age for porn access in UK

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images)

AI face detection now counts among the tools that could be used to help adult sites effectively estimate UK user ages and block minors from accessing pornography, the UK's Office of Communications (Ofcom) said in a press release on Tuesday.

The only foreseeable problem, Ofcom noted: There's little evidence that the AI method of age estimation will be fair, reliable, or effective.

The UK's legal age to watch porn is 18. To enforce that restriction, under the Online Safety Act, Ofcom will soon require all apps and sites displaying adult content to introduce so-called "age assurance" systems that verify and/or estimate user ages. Sites and apps risk potential fines if they fail to "ensure that children are not normally able to encounter pornography on their service."

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Search engine that scans billions of faces tries blocking kids from results

news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 24 October, 2023 - 18:04 · 1 minute

Search engine that scans billions of faces tries blocking kids from results

Enlarge (credit: Wirestock | iStock / Getty Images Plus )

A search engine that uses facial recognition to help people scan billions of images to find their photos strewn across the Internet has officially banned searches of minors, The New York Times reported . The move comes after years of criticism from privacy experts, media outlets, and regulators, warning that tech like PimEyes could be abused to stalk children online.

PimEyes CEO Giorgi Gobronidze told The Times that in addition to setting a "no harm policy," the company has also implemented new AI age-detection technology to detect and block searches of minors. This update is due to privacy concerns that "images of children might be used by [some] individuals with a twisted moral compass and values, such as pedophiles, child predators," Gobronidze said. Critics had long warned that PimEyes' tech made it easy to upload a photo of any child and quickly find other photos or discover their name and address.

By design, PimEyes is supposed to make it easy for people to figure out where their own photos have been posted online, but PimEyes has no way to stop people from searching for photos of other people, The Times reported. The platform's "data security unit" has monitored suspicious activity in the past by flagging any upload of a child's photo or detecting when male users repeatedly search for photos of women, the BBC reported . Gobronidze confirmed to The Times that out of 118,000 searches per day of PimEyes' database of 3 billion images, the company has detected and banned more than 200 accounts conducting "inappropriate searches of children’s faces."

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