Face recognition: the global ID card

Pic here.  FT article.

Google, like Facebook and just about everybody else on the web right now, is suffering privacy issues, hence it has "put the launch of controversial facial recognition technology under review."

But no one expects, argues the article, that Google will back off from the technology, as all sorts of powerful face recognition techs are just hitting the market.

Hell, my new--and tiny--handheld Canon HD digital camcorder/camera does a fascinating job of spotting and tracking faces live as I film or shoot, so if that low-level capacity has reached everybody's personal cameras, you just know that far more profound technologies are being massed by major players.

Most of us have bumped into this technology in travel or across our work days, and there's long been the simple stuff for identifying faces of friends in programs like Apple's iPhoto.  The iPhone's got that bit where you record a snippet of a song and then search the web for its title, so no surprise that companies are rolling out similar technology that allows you to do the same with faces off your phone.

One telecom exec: 

There isn't a single mobile company that isn't interested in this. There are some 800m camera-equipped phones sold each year, but most people don't really use the cameras.  Mobile phone companies are looking for ways to enhance the camera experience.

The fear is easy to imagine:  the ability to snap a photo of somebody, find out who they are, and then be able to pull info up on them instantly, increasing the capacity of stalkers everywhere. Naturally, an Israeli start-up firm, Face.com, is at the forefront of the technology, having already scanned 9bn photos, yielding 52m identities.  Face.com admits it is still defining the safeguards on such a system.

But some smart words from an exec of a Swedish tech firm:

Now people are scared when they see [facial recognition products], but three or our years from now it won't be like that. At the moment, it is hard to control privacy on social networks, but it won't always be that way.  We will see a lot of legal cases over this, and a lot more control given to the user.

I believe he's right, and that this is the normal catch-up phenomenon on rules.

Larger point:  this will be a powerful security tool in a world where violence has largely migrated down to the level of individuals.