Facial Recognition Software Advances Trigger Worries
...festival organizers used facial-identification technology to pick out revelers and send them their pictures directly to their phone. All they needed to do was opt in, by sending a selfie.
The technology is the product of NTechLab, a Moscow-based firm whose algorithm to identify facial features is getting attention in the broader information technology world. NTechLab co-founders Artem Kukharenko and Alexander Kabakov believe the possible uses of their technology are almost endless, and mostly positive: from allowing police to search for criminals in real time, to helping amusement parks identify and sell photos to their guests.
But the technology comes with a darker side. One of the company’s products touched off a privacy scandal in Russia, and the founders say they are in negotiations to sell its products to state-affiliated security firms from China and Turkey, among other countries, many of whom have spotty records of protecting civil liberties.
The 26-year-old Mr. Kukharenko and 29-year-old Mr. Kabakov largely brushed off any fears that their technology could end up in the wrong hands. Mr. Kabakov said that simply owning a smartphone means you can’t opt out of surveillance.
“There is no private life,” he said. “Your government can control you now…. You take your iPhone or Android phone and it has information about your behavior, your movements, about what you buy, about who you are talking to.”
Mr. Kabakov says the technology should be welcomed, rather than condemned: He compared the resistance to facial-recognition technology to the debate brought on by Uber Technologies Inc.’s ride-hailing app that has courted controversy in some countries.
“There is always a conflict between progress and some scared people,” he said. “But in any way, progress wins.”
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