How does facial recognition work and is it safe? | WIRED Explains

In May 2019, San Francisco became the first US city to ban the use of facial recognition, but this is an isolated example of resistance to this controversial technology.

In the UK, it's been used on numerous occasions, while London's Metropolitan Police has confirmed that it will start using the technology as part of its regular policing.

But how does facial recognition work and is it accurate and safe? In this WIRED Explains video, security editor Matt Burgess breaks down the ins and outs of the technology and the issues surrounding its use.

#privacy #facialrecognition #wiredexplains


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[XSpImmaLion]

Every single video I see produced by media, bloggers and whatnot always seems to miss the biggest and most important problem with tech like this - an imbalance in power between citizenship and government.
Basically, who watches the watchmen.
It's not about the defects and biases current surveillance and facial recognition algorithms and strategies currently have. If it was only about that, it'd be easy enough to argue that the tech will improve overtime and that growing pains will be worth it.
The main problem with it is that it takes away a fundamental right from the people, the right to privacy, to put undue and disproportionate power at the hands of government agencies and those who are able to pay for and use the tech.
This generates a power imbalance, making people increasingly more vulnerable, taking one more thing out of people's hands for the convenience of government.
And the thing with power is that it always corrupts, sooner or later. It is by no coincidence that one of the first things totalitarian, absolutist or fundamentalist regimes go after is control of information and citizens' right to privacy.
The more a society lets the culture and environment of a country and it's institutions be contaminated by high usage of tools like those, the easier it'll evetually fall into one of tjose types of regimes, because the government will already have the tools, power, knowledge and people to turn the switch.
Countries that are willingly openly allowing stuff like IoT devices to invade the market, mass surveillance schemes to pass, not punishing their corporations, institutions and governments for huge privacy ending schemes, mass database hacks, and advanced surveillance strategies such as mass facial recognition and privatr data collection are setting themselves for failure in the long run. Sooner or later you will get people in government, corporations and whatnot willing to exploit that for their own personal benefit, and then it'll be too late to do anything about it.

[jasminebrotherton]

Plot twist... the guys presenting the information is actually a robot

[bec_r_r]

You don’t need that much security if people have meaningful work and receive a proper wage for that work. If people don’t have jobs and no money they have to resort to crime to get by. I don’t advocate turning to crime to make ends meet but in history people have resorted to petty crime.

[KeithFoad]

No, it's not safe. One girl was facial recognitioned and apparently, she was arrested on that recognition with a warrant for her arrest. But the recognition did not work properly, and she was released.

[YVO]

The only way to stop ideas from spreading such as wild fire can is elimination. How many could figure out this deeply obvious flaw in the on purpose and or by chance, 'what kind of elimination takes out that many sustainable voices? What ruthlessness there must be employed. Ukraine are but native son such as they are planet wide.

[steerpike]

his is brilliant we need cameras every 500 yrds, people are fed up with crime, well done

[mimip]

The guy speaking in this video looks like an AI himself. Freaky.

[LamentationLaments]

Is this video being narrated by artificial intelligence?..😬😬🤖

[janvonrosa]

This guy has never neard of NIST apparently...