We all love the Facial Recognition feature on our phones, especially when it’s somebody’s birthday. It helps to sort out a particular person’s pictures, which can then be posted either on Snapchat or Instagram. Read further to find out how this sweet feature that makes our easy life easier can, in turn, make our life filled with threats.
What is facial recognition? Facial recognition is a software application that creates numerical representations by analyzing images of human faces in order to compare against other human faces. Thus it is a technology that is capable of detecting or identifying a face from its cultivated data. This technology has the potential to let you check-out from a store without pulling out your wallet. Credit card frauds could diminish at an exponential rate because it will be hard to fool facial recognition. Facial recognition is transforming industries by serving different purposes.
With that being said, this technology has still not been developed wholly. A different angle, a new haircut, and even a different light setting could confuse the facial recognition (FR) system. At present, fingerprint scanners are more reliable than FR systems. However, the IT industry will very soon perfect this technology. But is the government at pace with the technology? In order to protect consumers from being exploited by giant corporate companies, there are still many steps needed to be taken by the government to outline the rules and regulations.
India plans to build a nation-wide Automated Facial Recognition System (AFRS) to modernize the process for criminal identification and verification by various police organizations across the country. The Delhi Police applied the facial recognition technology to find missing children; the success rate was less than 1 percent.
FR systems, in general, can put any person’s life in danger. For instance, if a person is seen in a rally protesting for his/her rights, any government official could use this footage against that person. Globally, FR systems fail to identify gender and are also racial biased. According to researchers at MIT – all the big commercial businesses like IBM, Amazon, and Google, who have the cutting edge FR systems, only have accurate results when it is used on a white man. Whereas if the system is used on a black woman, the FR system becomes overwhelmingly inaccurate.
Another potential downside is data breach. Your face details could be hacked and sold on the black market. Are the walls of cyber-security of any app that asks for your face as a password strong enough to protect them?
There are many nascent security concerns which are going to put this generation through turmoil unless the world becomes an uncorrupted place and true to its every word.
Top softwares that provide facial recognition features with artificial intelligence are Deep Vision AI, SenseTime, Amazon Rekognition, and FaceFirst. For the matter of fact, in Russia, a search engine named Yandex currently provides an unregulated FR service to the public. Another search engine TinEye is an excellent site. Upload your profile image, and you’ll see a list of results showing web pages that feature that image on their page. The entire set of results includes only URL links to pages that feature the image you’ve uploaded. It works well for face searches as well as any other image you may want to view where it’s been published online.
This advancement of technology could bring the lives of innocent people into jeopardy. Dreadful leaders like Fazlullah, the man who is believed to have shot Malala Yousafzai, will be able to easily hunt down the next philanthropist or a protestor who is trying to reform law or bring justice into their own country.
This is the country’s internal threat which is faced universally; speaking about external complications that any country could face – In 2018, Yandex detected a cyber-attack by a sophisticated malware called Regin. The Russian company’s representatives stated that the attack “was detected at a very early stage,” and it was “fully neutralized before any damage was done.” The company also claimed no user data was compromised. Furthermore, the company allegedly accused the attack was launched by five eyes intelligence alliance. This alliance was formed by Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
In conclusion, the FR system could no doubt be helpful for the world in many ways. But at the same time, we will have to face many challenges until we learn how to use this technology for mutual benefits only. What we all can do is to brace ourselves for the impending provocations, foreseen for the next coming decades.
Let us know in the comment section about your views on the pros and cons of facial recognition.
Written by- Priyanshi Shah.
Pictorial sources:
https://www.analyticsinsight.net/best-facial-recognition-software/
https://www.groovypost.com/howto/install-microsofts-new-chromium-edge-beta/
https://www.vectorstock.com/royalty-free-vector/facial-recognition-system-vector-21177361
Literary sources:
https://www.cybersecurity-insiders.com/malware-attack-on-yandex-search-engine-of-russia-by-five-eyes-intelligence/
https://www.analyticsinsight.net/best-facial-recognition-software/
https://www.groovypost.com/howto/install-microsofts-new-chromium-edge-beta/
https://techbusinessguide.com/disadvantages-facial-recognition/
