4um: 'TOO CREEPY' - Google warns against facial recognition database

Eric Schmidt: 'I am incredibly optimistic about what is going to be possible in the next decade, we have spent our whole career getting to this point' Photo: AFP

Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman, has said that the search giant would not build a database capable of recognising individual faces even though it is increasingly possible.

Mr Schmidt, speaking at Google’s ‘Big Tent’ conference on internet privacy, said that the rapid development of facial recognition technology has been one of the things that has surprised him most in a long career as a computer scientist. Such “surprising accuracy” was, however, he said, “very concerning”.

Asked a question about coining the phrase “crossing the creepy line” to describe an aspect of how Google thinks about privacy, Mr Schmidt indicated that, for him, a database utilising facial recognition advances was “unlikely” to be a service that Google would create. He suggested “some company by the way is going to cross that line”.

Mr Schmidt, however, warned regulators and legislators against trying to prevent worrying services in such a way that may stifle innovation. “Hopefully the French or any other country won’t pass laws that are so foolish they force Google to not be able to operate in those countries,” he said referring to a French law requiring internet companies to retain unencrypted passwords for a year.

“Well-meaning people in government write something which is pretty broad and you have to be careful when you do this kind of regulation,” Mr Scmidt said in answer to a related question. “You might affect something and have an unintended consequence. So that is what we are always concerned about.”

Google has already created a service called Dashboard, which permits users to see and delete all the information Google holds on them. Mr Schmidt said that he hoped to make such utilities more friendly, and that there were several projects working on making the legalistic terms and conditions for services easier for users to interpret.

Asked about the recent spat between Facebook and Google, in which Facebook hired PR firm Burson-Marsteller to anonymously brief against Google, Mr Schmidt said he had read the coverage but that reporters should “ask Facebook about Facebook”. He added, however, that Google would not be likely to do anything similar and had never undertaken such a PR project.

Legions Of Biometric Face Scanning Cameras To Be Installed At Heathrow Airport Within Weeks

In addition to full body scanners and enhanced grope downs, the latest big brother nightmare to hit airports comes in the form of biometric facial recognition cameras, set to be rolled out in terminals at London’s Heathrow Airport in September.

After an eighteen month trial, the Aurora Imaging Recognition (AIR) biometric system with enhanced image infrared cameras has been approved for use in the airport at terminals 1 and 5, reports the London Evening Standard.

Heathrow Skyport describes the process that travelers will have to undergo after the system is adopted:

Tests conducted by the independent airport operator BAA and the UK Border Agency found that each face scan takes approximately 4-5 seconds.

There is no indication that anyone will be allowed to opt out of the procedure, meaning that for all travelers it will be compulsory to have a face scan and be added to the database in order to fly out of the terminal.

The justification for the system is to prevent passengers swapping tickets in the departure lounge, potentially allowing an international passenger to fly domestically, thus bypassing immigration checks.

The operators also say that the system will “help identify potential terrorists”, however it is not clear how this is possible given that they also claim that all data collected will be stored for up to 24 hours and then destroyed.

It is exactly this kind of loose justification and the bandying about of the word “terrorism” to sell nothing more than pure security theatre that has led to such a rampant backlash against the TSA takeover in the US.

The British government has been moving toward the use of such systems for some time. Three years ago we reported that passport control officers at UK airports were to be phased out in favour of the biometric cameras.

It was then revealed two months later that Interpol, the International Criminal Police Organization, wishes to integrate a facial database with its already existing fingerprint and DNA databases.

The organization, is planning to expand its role into the mass screening of passengers moving around the world by creating a face recognition database to catch wanted suspects, reported the London Guardian at the time.

Such a database will hold the records of every citizen who has ever traveled in and out of virtually every country in the world, representing intelligence agency style bulk interception of information.

We have previously noted that the vast array of databases currently being employed by intelligence agencies, government and law enforcement agencies worldwide were designed to be linked together in a system which will tie in the management and control of all facets of life for citizens to one central hub.

2008 saw the announcement of a vast intelligence program to establish a global biometric database known as “Server in the Sky” that will collate and provide an ” International Information Consortium” with access to the biometric measurements and personal information of citizens across the globe in the name of fighting the “war on terror”.

As reported by the London Guardian, the long term plan is being formulated by the FBI with the cooperation of the home offices and law enforcement agencies of American allies. The technology is being supplied by the US defense company Northrop Grumman.

Furthermore, the use of such technology, as we have already seen, will not be limited to the passport control office.

A 2007 British government report muted an extensive upgrade to cctv systems all across the country to incorporate facial scanning technology. The report suggested a central database of every camera and a network allowing access to it could be beneficial.

In the US there are several schemes that use Facial Recognition Technology in conjunction with Federal agencies, tying the technology to traditional documents such as drivers licenses, passports and credit cards.

A biometric face recognition system has already been approved in China and is expected to be used at airports, customs entrances, banks, post offices, residential areas and other public places in the near future.

Other proposals include placing the cameras in every seat on aircraft and installing software to try and automatically detect terrorists or other dangers caused by passengers.

We are assured that cigarette vending machines will employ the technology in order to enforce smoking laws. Similarly, supermarkets in the UK have already started trialing the technolo gy with the justification being a crackdown on underage drinking.

In Japan facial scanning cameras are being installed in train and bus stations to replace tickets in a move to make the individual features of the face a “unique bar code” as part of an antiterrorism and anticrime initiative.

Police in Tokyo are also asking home and shop owners to mount the cameras outside their properties. “Police investigating an incident in the neighborhood would have access to these images.” according to reports.

Cell phones and computers are now also being produced with face scanning cameras, and even facebook has now integrated facial recognition software.

The prospect of the technology being so widely used was recently even critisized by Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt. A prominent Bilderberger and a man who once said that internet users should have no expectation of privacy, Schmidt said “Show us 14 photos of yourself and we can identify who you are,” before warning governments of adopting any “foolish” legislation that would see facial recognition technology become a part of everyday life. (2 images)

"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters." ~ Ben Franklin

"For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth, to know the worst, and to provide for it.” ~ Patrick Henry

Google warns against facial recognition database

Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt has warned Governments against ‘foolish’ legislation – and said facial recognition is too creepy even for Google