Use and Misuse of Facial Recognition Software

There is a growing tide of public discussion on the use and misuse of facial recognition software.  Much of the negative perception is driven by countries like China using the technology to surveil and monitor their citizens at all times.

There is a big distinction between using facial recognition on citizens to know where they are and what they are doing without their permission and with permission to validate and expedite access.   

Recently, facial recognition software has taken a beating for mis-identifying people as criminals who in fact were not.  And this surveillance approach has uncovered a higher failure rate with minorities which is troubling.  

What are the causes of misidentification?  There are a myriad of things that can cause misidentification.  First, it is critical that the software have a good baseline photo from which to compare.  But this alone does not always equate to a high percentage match.  

Where are you gathering the comparison photo?  From a camera system? Can it convert the video to still images at a high quality?  Does the individual have anything, intentionally or unintentionally, to avoid detection like sunglasses, facial hair, hats or simply a poor angle that can diminish the comparison photo.

We could spend forever debating facial recognition software and its use for law enforcement and intelligence agencies.  However, facial recognition has a great applicability to creating a safe workplace. This is a much different application for facial recognition.

SafeVisitor will use facial recognition after a person has been ID validated to allow them quicker access to an organization.  Some of our larger schools have as many as 50,000 volunteers. Knowing with 100% accuracy who is entering your facility is critical  

The days of having visitors, volunteers, contractors or visiting employees sign a guest book and receive access to your building should be over.  Even visitor management systems that do not include ID validation, background checks, but issue an ID card run the risk of allowing someone in the building that should not be allowed in.  How do I know the person scanning the card is who they say they are?

Using ID validation, background checks and then adding a biometric such as facial recognition allows us to create a Safevisitor fast pass.  This is not surveillance. This is stepping up to a kiosk, scanning my SafeVisitor ID, standing in front of the camera and doing a quick comparison to verify identity. Two factor identification.   Print your ID, door opens and off you go.

Facial recognition software provides convenience.  Just like TSA is looking to deploy in airports.

Facial recognition software is not new.  Many of you use it on your phone to recognize you and unlock it.  

Any new technology can be used in a positive or negative way.  

If you would like to learn how facial recognition could be used as part of a visitor management system, we offer a couple opportunities for a demo:

SafeVisitor Weekly Demo Thursdays, 2PM EST

Or

Register Your Team for a 1:1 Demo