Police units in the USA are starting to use software developed by FaceFirst. The ability of the software has been predicted by futurists and depicted in movies and TV for quite some time – but now it is reality.
In a single second, law enforcement agents can match a suspect against millions upon millions of profiles in vast detailed databases stored on the cloud. It’s all done using facial recognition, and in Southern California it’s already occurring.
“Up to 4 million comparisons per second, per clustered server” — that’s how many matches a single computer wired to the FaceFirst system can consider in a single breath as images captured by cameras, cell phones and surveillance devices from as far as 100 feet away are fed into algorithms designed to pick out terrorists and persons of interest.
The technology is not restricted to fixed surveillance cameras – an agent can take a photo with their cell phone and receive an instant result.
The future for us revolves around two new paradigms:
1) What rights do individuals have to not have their likeness stored in a database? Presumably the same rules regarding DNA and fingerprint storage would apply…
2) To protect yourself, how can you mask your face so that you remain undetected? The law might have great difficulty with this, given the myriad ways one can mess with their facial imagery.
- Could Elton John be arrested for wearing elaborate glasses?
- How long can a fringe be?
- In a polluted city is wearing a dust mask acceptable?
- Should motorcycle riders wear helmets?
- Can someone with 3rd degree burns wear bandages on their face?
The law could outlaw “deliberate disguising of your facial identity for the purposes of avoiding detection”, but could luck proving intent.
I predict that there will always be a legal means of defeating this. Once again, I predict a divided culture – those who are masked, and those who are not. I suggest that cloakers chose to ride both worlds, adopting one or the other where they see fit.
