UK Biometrics Commissioner criticizes UK police for not revealing facial recognition plans

August 26, 2017
Justin Lee

The UK Biometrics Commissioner has criticized the Home Office and police for failing to address key privacy issues relating to the use of facial recognition, according to a report by The Register. Professor Paul Wiles condemned the police for its growing database of facial images (many of which are illegally stored), as well as the government for failing to have a formal document detailing its biometrics strategy. He recommended that the government should hold an official public meeting outlining a

NY DMV use of facial recognition resulted in more than 4,000 arrests since 2010

August 22, 2017
Justin Lee

The Cuomo administration revealed that the facial recognition technology used by New York State Department of Motor Vehicles has resulted in the arrests of more than 4,000 individuals involved in identity theft or fraud since 2010, according to a report by New York Daily News. Since its launch in 2010, the Department of Motor Vehicles Facial Recognition Technology Program has successfully identified more than 21,000 possible cases including more than 7,000 cases over the last 18 months alone. There have been

Home Office plans to invest $6.4m to provide police with facial recognition technology

August 16, 2017
Justin Lee

The Home Office is planning to invest £5 million (US$6.4 million) on facial-recognition software to be initially used by law enforcement and eventually other public sector organizations, according to a report by Public Technology. The department has posted a contract notice looking for interested technology suppliers for a five-year term to provide biometric matcher engine software (MES) that can identify people via facial imagery. In addition to the technology itself, the supplier or suppliers will need to provide a range

NEC sees increasing demand for its face recognition technology

August 16, 2017
Justin Lee

NEC Corp. is focusing its efforts on further developing and distributing its facial recognition technology to meet increasing demand for such safety measures to be implemented during sports events and high-profile public events, according to a report by The Ahsai Shimbun. “Our system allows individuals on a watch list to be identified on the spot in images of a camera that is monitoring a crowd,” an NEC official said at Interpol World 2017 in Singapore in early July. The official

Marinus Analytics releases facial recognition solution to combat human trafficking

August 9, 2017
Justin Lee

Marinus Analytics, a Carnegie Mellon University spinoff startup known for creating anti-human trafficking tool TrafficJam, recently released a facial recognition solution that helps law enforcement find specific missing persons, according to a report by Trib Live. Using FaceSearch, law enforcement officials are able to link a photo of a missing person to an image of a potential victim that has been seen on the deep web — hidden areas of the internet that are not typically indexed by Google and

Police deploying facial recognition at London’s Notting Hill Carnival

August 9, 2017
Justin Lee

The UK’s Metropolitan Police is planning to use facial recognition software in a new pilot program aimed at identifying suspected troublemakers among attendees at the Notting Hill carnival, according to a report by The Guardian. The Notting Hill Carnival is an annual event that takes place in London over two days in August. It attracts around one million people annually, making it one of the world’s largest street festivals. Using the facial recognition system, police will match faces in the

Biometrics Research Group releases report on policing

August 4, 2017
Rawlson King

Biometrics in policing will constitute half of the industry’s market share by the end of this decade, according to a new Biometrics in Law Enforcement (PDF) report published by the Biometrics Research Group Inc., the publisher of BiometricUpdate.com. Biometrics Research Group Inc. projects that the total global biometrics market will grow to US$35.5 billion by 2020 from its 2015 value of US$15 billion. The research vendor approximates that more than half of this 2020 spending, equaling US$18 billion, will be

FBI’s biometrics database to be exempt from parts of Privacy Act

August 3, 2017
Justin Lee

The FBI has implemented a new rule which will prevent the public from finding out if their fingerprints, iris scans and other biometric information is stored in its Next Generation Identification system, according to a report by NextGov. The law enforcement agency’s Next Generation Identification system stores the biometric records of people who have undergone background checks for jobs, volunteer positions and military service, as well as of citizens who have criminal records. Effective August 31, the federal database will

Special Report: Biometrics in Law Enforcement

August 3, 2017
Rawlson King

This white paper by Biometrics Research Group, Inc. provides an overview of the law enforcement biometrics market (PDF). click to download the report (PDF) Law enforcement biometrics refers to applications of biometric systems which aids policing. Biometrics Research Group Inc. projects that the global law enforcement biometrics market will grow to US$18 billion by 2020 from its 2015 value of US$7.5 billion. The law enforcement market includes the use of biometrics to identify or verify the identity of individuals who

Digital Barriers face recognition software provided for free to find missing youth

July 31, 2017
Justin Lee

Digital Barriers will be providing its live facial recognition software, SmartVis Face, for free to all national and local authorities and agencies in the UK involved in the search for missing young people. As featured in a July 20 episode of BBC Newsnight, SmartVis Face is the company’s new automatic facial recognition system that has been built around machine learning. The software was initially designed to track criminals and terror suspects against watch lists of several thousands of people. Last