Facial Recognition Software Helps Police Locate Suspect In Crowd Of More Than 60,000 People

Facial recognition systems are being increasingly used worldwide and you can now find this technology being used to scan faces at airports, sports events, train stations, and even in bathrooms.

Despite the technology being increasingly used however, many critics point out that it isn't 100 percent accurate and that false positives are a common occurrence in the field. Previous studies have found facial recognition software to have high error rates and on many occasions they have produced inaccurate results.

Aside from the error rates though, there is another concern that many liberty advocates have relating to this software. And that is that this growing surveillance web poses a great risk to privacy and personal freedom. Some suspect that it might be used to silence people from speaking out. If there were a greater chance that people were going to be watched, perhaps that would persuade them from becoming politically engaged in their communities in the future? As well, many have questioned who is going to be conducting thorough oversight (if any) of these widespread surveillance systems.

And few details are always given by authorities on exactly how the programs are used.

We've already been lied to about spying programs previously and they expect us to forget, forgive, and move on with even more spying.

With the high error rates that these facial recognition systems have been shown to operate with, it's been estimated that 1 out of every 10 people might be at risk of being misidentified.

A previous analysis from several years ago found that facial recognition systems had an accurate rate that was roughly 86 percent. However, it's been suggested that they've been improving in recent years and law enforcement are still using the technology in many different areas to help them conduct their investigations.

Just recently, it was reported that facial recognition technology in China helped authorities there to locate a suspect who was in a crowd of more than 60k people.

The individual who they identified was an alleged fugitive and he had been attending a pop concert that was located in the Jiangxi province.

And China isn't the only country that law enforcement have been using facial recognition software, you can also find police using this sort of technology in the United States, Germany, the UK, and elsewhere.

At the moment, China is alleged to have a surveillance network that is comprised of more than 170 million CCTV cameras and they are going to add many more within the next several years. It's reported that they want to quadruple their camera count by 2020--a bit excessive and a waste of money if you ask me.

Pics:
Pixabay

Sources:
https://www.eff.org/press/releases/law-enforcement-use-face-recognition-systems-threatens-civil-liberties
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-17/chinese-man-caught-by-facial-recognition-arrested-at-concert/9668608
https://medium.com/faceter/how-will-facial-id-technology-affect-different-parts-of-our-lives-664cf3018f68
https://thenextweb.com/asia/2017/10/17/chinas-upcoming-facial-recognition-system-will-obliterate-privacy-for-its-1-3-billion-citizens/
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/smile-identified-face-recognition-article-1.3008512
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4605725/
https://www.hackread.com/police-locate-suspect-from-a-crowd-using-facial-recognition/

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