Tag: recognition

Rite Aid used facial recognition in hundreds of stores for years

by  on  in Technology Consultant

As of last week, Rite Aid had pulled the plug on the software, which was present in around 200 locations, owing to a “larger industry conversation” about facial recognition. “Other large technology companies seem to be scaling back or rethinking their efforts around facial recognition given increasing uncertainty around the technology’s utility,” the company said.

IBM said last month it’d no longer work on facial recognition, in part due to concerns about surveillance and racial profiling. A number of studies have suggested racial bias is present in facial recognition tech, and there have been at least two cases in which

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Everything you need to know about facial recognition in Australia

by  on  in Technology Consultant

Facial recognition technology is increasingly being trialled and deployed around Australia. Queensland and Western Australia are reportedly already using real-time facial recognition through CCTV cameras. 7-Eleven Australia is also deploying facial recognition technology in its 700 stores nationwide for what it says is customer feedback.

And Australian police are reportedly using a facial recognition system that allows them to identify members of the public from online photographs.

Facial recognition technology has a somewhat nefarious reputation in some police states and non-democratic countries. It has been used by the police in China to identify anti-Beijing protesters in Hong Kong and monitor

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Man wrongfully arrested due to facial recognition software talks about ‘humiliating’ experience

by  on  in Technology Consultant

Robert Williams spent more than a day in custody at a Detroit detention center in January after an incorrect facial recognition match led to his wrongful arrest, in what the American Civil Liberties Union alleges is the first such case in the United States.

It’s an experience that has stayed with him.

“I felt empty, I guess,” Williams told NBC News in a television interview. “Humiliated is the only word that I can think of. I felt humiliated to be getting arrested.”

Williams, who is Black, had been mistaken for someone caught on surveillance video shoplifting from a Shinola watch

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Detroit police challenged over face recognition flaws, bias

by  on  in Technology Development

A Black man who says he was unjustly arrested because facial recognition technology mistakenly identified him as a suspected shoplifter is calling for a public apology from Detroit police. And for the department to abandon its use of the controversial technology.

The complaint by Robert Williams is a rare challenge from someone who not only experienced an erroneous face recognition hit, but was able to discover that it was responsible for his subsequent legal troubles.

The Wednesday complaint filed on Williams’ behalf alleges that his Michigan driver license photo — kept in a statewide image repository — was incorrectly flagged

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Outrage over police brutality has finally convinced Amazon, Microsoft, and IBM to rule out selling facial recognition tech to law enforcement. Here’s what’s going on.

by  on  in Technology Consultant

Activists have campaigned for years against the police having access to facial recognition software.
Activists have campaigned for years against the police having access to facial recognition software.

Matthew Horwood/Getty Images

  • IBM, Amazon, and Microsoft have all committed to not sell facial recognition to law enforcement at least temporarily.

  • While activists have been campaigning for the companies to do this for years, the Black Lives Matter movement appears to have tipped the scale.

  • As facial recognition becomes more widely used to catch criminals, illegal immigrants, or terrorists, there is mounting concern about how the technology might be abused.

  • Each company has made subtly different promises on their sales bans.

  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for

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