Facial recognition systems are capable of up to 99,97% accuracy, but the technology does have some drawbacks.
Cybersecurity experts at Ping Identity explore the importance of biometric authentication capabilities while protecting user privacy.
How does facial recognition work? What is it?
There are several advantages of facial recognition technology for society. The DeepFace software from Facebook, which has a 97,25% accuracy rate for recognising human faces, is used for security and crime prevention purposes.
FRT can also improve efficiency during tasks like border checks at airports by reducing the need for interpersonal contact. Even in the field of medicine, FRT can be used to detect genetic illnesses by detecting subtle facial features.
A large number of tech companies are developing facial biometric systems.
* Facebook’s DeepFace technology has a true positive rate of 97,25%.
* Google’s FaceNet was 99,63% accurate when matching 13 000 pictures of faces from across the web.
* Amazon’s Rekognition is a cloud-based facial recognition service.
* Microsoft’s Face API is another cloud-based facial recognition service.
* Gemalto’s Cogent Live Face Identification System recognizss faces in busy environments, allowing developers to create applications that match live faces with data from documents.
What are the risks of facial recognition technology?
As facial recognition technology advances, cyber thieves seek to exploit it. In 2019, it was revealed that hackers cracked Apple’s iPhone FaceID user authentication in approximately 120 seconds.
Thus, despite the numerous advantages of facial recognition technology, it is critical to weigh the dangers and drawbacks in order to keep your personal information secure.
* It can violate individual and societal privacy – Because facial recognition algorithms may store significant amounts of data, it is critical that they have the greatest levels of security available. It is also critical that vendors who engage with these companies have adequate security procedures in place to eliminate any backdoor cybersecurity risks.
* It creates data vulnerabilities – Face recognition information could fall into the wrong hands as a result of data breaches. Although systems are improving in their ability to prevent identity theft, it is still possible. Furthermore, companies may utilise the information you provide them for research purposes. As a result, they stand to profit from it without your permission. Furthermore, firms may share or even sell this data to third parties, allowing them to recognise and follow you. Companies developing face recognition apps should consider data privacy risks. One method is to create detailed privacy policies, obtain customer consent, and provide them with the option to opt-out of the programme.
* Facial recognition isn’t perfect – Face-recognition algorithms can struggle to recognise us as the same person after as little as five years according to News Scientist. This means that systems that rely on facial recognition may need to obtain new photographs of users on a regular basis or risk being unable to identify them. Additionally, to make face matches, the technology relies on algorithms. Because the databases contain more data on white males, the algorithms are more robust for white men than for women and people of colour. As a result, the algorithms develop inadvertent biases.
Zain Malik at Ping Identity comments: “Facial recognition systems play an increasingly important role as effective biometric security. Although facial recognition technology is rapidly evolving and finding a number of applications in various market sectors, it is still not flawless. Face recognition technology is constantly being improved, which means that the percentage of errors will become lower and lower.”