Alcatraz AI launching upgraded Rock with boosted biometric privacy

Biometric access control company Alcatraz AI is coming out with a new product, highlighting both its privacy features and physical robustness – even in extreme weather conditions.

Originally announced in April, the Rock X facial recognition security and access control system results from collaborating with AI vision company Paravision. The product will be launched at the Global Security Exchange (GSX) conference in Florida from September 23rd to 25th.

The Rock X is IP66 water and dust-resistant, can be mounted flat on turnstiles and is designed to work in both complete darkness and intense sunlight with a range of 0 to 120,000 lux. It can also withstand temperatures from -40 to 150 degrees Fahrenheit (-40 to 66 degrees Celsius).

“We know that outdoor security poses challenging obstacles – that’s why we’ve designed Rock X to be highly durable and able to withstand harsh conditions and physical impact,” says the company’s CEO Tina D’Agostin.

Another highlight of the product is its approach towards privacy which includes encrypting and anonymizing data. The Californian company published a webinar last week detailing its compliance with biometric privacy laws such as BIPA and GDPR.

“All of our data is run through a one-way algorithm […] and you cannot use that information for anything,” said Blaine Frederick, Alcatraz AI’s vice president of product, during an online event on “Ensuring Compliance: New Trends in Biometric Privacy.”

The Alcatraz Rock system scans the user in 3D and converts it into a secure digital profile using AES256 encryption. The profile represents the user as data rather than a visual image and is linked to the user’s badge ID in the access system without exposing any personal information, the company says.

The access control system also needs to use a secure protocol such as OSDP instead of other non-secure protocols like Wiegand since that will reduce the overall level of security for the system. Finally, it’s important to anonymize the data in the face biometrics system, explains Frederick.

“In the Alcatraz system, the only identifier that we have between the biometric information and the user is just the badge number,” he says.”We never have anything like first names or last names. In fact, in our system, when you look up a profile, all you see is badge number.”

The system is also designed to keep profiles up to date with the help of machine learning and computer vision which detects weight, facial hair, or other changes.

“We want to eliminate the need to re-enroll,” Frederick says.” Some systems do not use a profile template that changes over time and in these cases, what you’ll see is a degradation of system performance as people change.”

Alcatraz AI has also put together a privacy playbook detailing privacy laws, best practices and examples of creating a privacy policy.

The Rock access control system was recently deployed in the Scott Data Center in Omaha, Nebraska.

Article Topics

access control  |  Alcatraz AI  |  biometrics  |  data privacy  |  face biometrics  |  facial authentication  |  Paravision