Foiling facial recognition

AGROUP of London-based artists are using face paint to protest the controversial introduction of facial recognition technology in policing.

Members of the Dazzle Club daub their faces with geometric shapes during their monthly silent walks through the city, which introduced the artificial intelligence system in January.

What is facial recognition technology?

It’s already in use on social media, mapping out friend’s faces from that school reunion on Facebook or photo apps compiling albums of people who spend time together.

Airports use it to verify passports and now mobile phones can be unlocked and payments made with just a movement of your face.

A facial recognition system uses biometrics to map facial features from a photograph or video and compares the information with a database of known faces to find a match.

Where is the technology used? The Metropolitan Police rolled out live facial recognition cameras operationally in January.

The cameras are in use for five to six hours at a time, with bespoke lists of suspects wanted for serious and violent crimes drawn up each time. It is also thought it will be used in cases of missing children and vulnerable adults.

China uses the technology widely, for policing and surveillance, as do many US states. Last year it was reported that at least 52 governments were testing the systems including Uganda and Mongolia.

Who are the Dazzle Club?

The group of artists was set up last year to provoke discussion about the growing using of facial recognition technology.

The group holds monthly silent walks through different parts of London to raise awareness about the technology, which they say is being used for “rampant surveillance”. Other concerns include its lack of regulation, inaccuracy and how it affects public spaces.

Why face paint?

The geometric, Cubist-style shapes are used to scramble the cameras and thwart identification. To test that their designs work, the Dazzle Club use the simple face detection feature on their smartphones.

A similar technique was used extensively in the First World War to camouflage British naval ships and confuse opponents about the actual heading or location of the ships.

Why is the technology controversial? Campaigners say facial recognition is unreliable and concerns have been raised about its accuracy and privacy implications by civil liberties groups, including Amnesty International UK, Liberty and Big Brother Watch (BBW).

The technology is biased, claim critics, as it is less accurate when it comes to people of colour and women, potentially leading to misidentifications and people being wrongly stopped and questioned.

A review carried out by researchers at Cardiff University over 55 hours flagged up 2,900 potential matches, of which 2,755 were false positives.