Facial Recognition AI

[John Albert]

I Googled site:sguforums.com "facial recognition" and received no results pertaining to AI facial recognition technology.

I consider this an interesting technological and social issue because this tech is quite powerful and will only become more pervasive (and invasive) as time goes on.

That's why I created this catch-all thread to discuss developments in computer facial recognition technology, its uses and abuses, potential countermeasures against it, etc.

Facial Recognition Tech Is Growing Stronger, Thanks to Your Face

By Cade Metz | July 13, 2019

SAN FRANCISCO — Dozens of databases of people’s faces are being compiled without their knowledge by companies and researchers, with many of the images then being shared around the world, in what has become a vast ecosystem fueling the spread of facial recognition technology.

The databases are pulled together with images from social networks, photo websites, dating services like OkCupid and cameras placed in restaurants and on college quads. While there is no precise count of the data sets, privacy activists have pinpointed repositories that were built by Microsoft, Stanford University and others, with one holding over 10 million images while another had more than two million.

The face compilations are being driven by the race to create leading-edge facial recognition systems. This technology learns how to identify people by analyzing as many digital pictures as possible using “neural networks,” which are complex mathematical systems that require vast amounts of data to build pattern recognition.

Tech giants like Facebook and Google have most likely amassed the largest face data sets, which they do not distribute, according to research papers. But other companies and universities have widely shared their image troves with researchers, governments and private enterprises in Australia, China, India, Singapore and Switzerland for training artificial intelligence, according to academics, activists and public papers.

Companies and labs have gathered facial images for more than a decade, and the databases are merely one layer to building facial recognition technology. But people often have no idea that their faces are in them. And while names are typically not attached to the photos, individuals can be recognized because each face is unique to a person.

Questions about the data sets are rising because the technologies that they have enabled are now being used in potentially invasive ways. Documents released last Sunday revealed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials employed facial recognition technology to scan motorists’ photos to identify undocumented immigrants. The F.B.I. also spent more than a decade using such systems to compare driver’s license and visa photos against the faces of suspected criminals, according to a Government Accountability Office report last month. On Wednesday, a congressional hearing tackled the government’s use of the technology.

There is no oversight of the data sets. Activists and others said they were angered by the possibility that people’s likenesses had been used to build ethically questionable technology and that the images could be misused. At least one face database created in the United States was shared with a company in China that has been linked to ethnic profiling of the country’s minority Uighur Muslims.

Over the past several weeks, some companies and universities, including Microsoft and Stanford, removed their face data sets from the internet because of privacy concerns. But given that the images were already so well distributed, they are most likely still being used in the United States and elsewhere, researchers and activists said.

Read the whole story: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/13/technology/databases-faces-facial-recognition-technology.html

[John Albert]

Back in July, Microsoft claimed to have deleted its entire MS Celeb database of over 10 million images of ~100,000 individuals. The face images had been compiled on the assumption that the subjects were all public figures, but an investigation by Financial Times journalist Adam Harvey discovered that the database also contained images of "arguably private" individuals. Furthermore, because the images were culled from online search data, their public distribution may have run afoul of various privacy and intellectual property laws.

But because the data had been made available for public download, the database is still out there in the hands of innumerable individuals, companies and agencies.

Besides MS Celeb, other databases have been compiled from various sources, including social media apps and games, and surveillance cameras overlooking public spaces.

[John Albert]

Artist Designs Metal Jewelry to Block Facial Recognition Software from Tracking You

By Sara Barnes | August 31, 2019



As technology continues to rapidly advance, the state of our privacy is a concern. Going beyond tracking your web browsing, facial recognition algorithms and social surveillance in public places also give privacy advocates pause. Polish designer Ewa Nowak has created a solution for this type of Big Brother-esque monitoring—an elegant and minimalist metal mask called Incognito. it’s an elegant and minimalist metal mask that affixes to the front of your face to make you unrecognizable to a camera and its accompanying smart software.

Made of brass, Incognito features three shapes that fit your face. An elongated polygon rests between your eyebrows and spans the height of your forehead while two circles cover either cheekbone. Each shape is connected by a strand of wire that also secures the mask—it fits over your ears like a pair of glasses.

When worn, Incognito really works. “This project was preceded by a long-term study on the shape, size, and location of mask elements so that it actually fulfills its task,” Nowak writes. “When testing solutions, I used the DeepFace algorithm, which is used by Facebook.” The polished pieces on the face deflect the software used to track you while in public as well as through social media.

https://mymodernmet.com/ewa-nowak-avoid-facial-recognition