As is usual, I watched this weekend's edition of Click on the BBC iPlayer. Titled 'Facial Recogition' it covers recent developments in facial recognition, - not as a detached review of technical progress but a very revealing report on where and how the technology is being extended into what many would regard as very controversial areas.
The first half of the programme covered the use of facialr ecognition by the police, - the Met and the Welsh forces. In each case, members of the public unbeknown to the targets are being scanned in public places and identified with pictures on the police national database. In various trials, the technology has been found not particularly accurate, sometimes giving less than 2% correct results.
As an (ex)engineer, I generally am not phased with new technology being introduced, but find myself truly concerned with the potential for unfair treatment that the planned use of these will inevitably bring.
The second half of the programme was even more worrying, - here there were commercial companies setting up systems to identify for (pseudo)crime matters and even manipulation of customers images and personal data for commercial gain. One representative said that the data held on individuals without their consent could not be accessed by the subject without a Subject Access Request being formally submitted; that's assuming they even knew that such data was held on them!
It was obvious that these organisations regard the data as their asset, - and although not specifically mentioned, I can imagine that if allowed to continue with this data obtained without consent, it would become a tradeable commodity, further undermining both personal privacy and data security. The consequences for the general public could be very serious.
I suggest that anybody who has an interest in their privacy or data security takes 24 minutes of their time to watch the programme.
The first half of the programme covered the use of facialr ecognition by the police, - the Met and the Welsh forces. In each case, members of the public unbeknown to the targets are being scanned in public places and identified with pictures on the police national database. In various trials, the technology has been found not particularly accurate, sometimes giving less than 2% correct results.
As an (ex)engineer, I generally am not phased with new technology being introduced, but find myself truly concerned with the potential for unfair treatment that the planned use of these will inevitably bring.
The second half of the programme was even more worrying, - here there were commercial companies setting up systems to identify for (pseudo)crime matters and even manipulation of customers images and personal data for commercial gain. One representative said that the data held on individuals without their consent could not be accessed by the subject without a Subject Access Request being formally submitted; that's assuming they even knew that such data was held on them!
It was obvious that these organisations regard the data as their asset, - and although not specifically mentioned, I can imagine that if allowed to continue with this data obtained without consent, it would become a tradeable commodity, further undermining both personal privacy and data security. The consequences for the general public could be very serious.
I suggest that anybody who has an interest in their privacy or data security takes 24 minutes of their time to watch the programme.
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