{"id":12806,"date":"2016-08-22T09:00:24","date_gmt":"2016-08-22T13:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/?p=12806"},"modified":"2019-11-15T06:54:16","modified_gmt":"2019-11-15T11:54:16","slug":"bad-facial-recognition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/bad-facial-recognition\/12806\/","title":{"rendered":"The dark side of facial recognition technology"},"content":{"rendered":"

You can change your name or use a pseudonym. You can also edit or delete your social media accounts. But you cannot change your face so easily. Facial recognition helps us solve a lot of problems<\/a> \u2014 and it simultaneously creates plenty of new ones. In this post, we discuss the threats that come with the global spread of such systems.<\/p>\n

1. Losing the right to privacy \u2014 on a global scale<\/h3>\n

The FBI officially maintains the Next Generation Identification-Interstate Photo System (NGI-IPS) \u2014 a database containing photos of people accused or convicted of civil and criminal proceedings. That\u2019s OK, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

Not at all! In May, the American Government Accountability Office audited<\/a> the Bureau and found out that in fact the FBI\u2019s database of 412 million<\/i> photos includes pictures of people who were never the target of any investigation. The Bureau even has a separate unit that is in charge of facial recognition: Facial Analysis, Comparison, and Evaluation ( FACE<\/a>) Services.<\/p>\n

As it turned out, FBI representatives made arrangements with several states and obtained photos from driver\u2019s licenses and passport and visa applications, as well as images of criminal suspects and convicts. The database also includes photos of foreign nationals \u2014 potentially about 100 million of them.<\/p>\n

The FBI actively uses facial recognition during investigations. We\u2019ve already written<\/a> about how this approach pays off. But the situation is more complicated than that. Facial recognition technology is young and imperfect, and the FBI\u2019s system is no exception: It has racial biases<\/a> and at best achieves 80%-85% accuracy<\/a>. At the same time, the FBI deliberately covered up<\/a> the scale of its facial recognition usage, contrary to the requirements of the Privacy Impact Assessment.<\/p>\n

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10 ways #facial<\/a> recognition can be used for #good<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/pkaIiUJHvQ<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/VzlvLtcHWd<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Kaspersky (@kaspersky) August 19, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n