European Union likely to ban Facial Recognition for 5 years

The EU (Europian Union) is considering restricting the use of facial recognition technology for a possible duration of 5 years, in public area sectors. The reason being is the regulators need some time to consider the protection of unethical exploitation of the technique. The facial recognition is a technique that lets to identify faces that are captured on camera footage to be crosschecked against real-time watchlists, mostly collected by the police.

However, the restrictions for the use are not absolute as the technique can still be used for research and development, and safety purposes. The committee formulating the restriction drafted an 18-page document, which implicates the protection of privacy and security of an individual from the abuse of the facial recognition technique. The new rules are likely to strengthen the security measures further against the exploitation. The EU suggested forcing responsibilities on either party, the developers, and the users of AI (artificial intelligence) and requested member countries of the EU to build an administration to observe the recent laws.

Throughout the ban duration that is 3-5 years, “a solid measure for evaluating the repercussions of facial recognition and plausible security check means can be discovered and applied.” The recommendations appear among requests from lawmakers and activists in the United Kingdom to prevent the police from unethical abuse of the AI technique that uses live facial recognition technology for purposes of monitoring the public. Not too late, the Kings Cross estate got into trouble after a revelation that its owners were using facial recognition without the public knowing about it.

The politicians allege that facial recognition is fallacious, interfering, and violates the basic human right of privacy. According to a recent study, the algorithms that facial recognition uses are not only incorrect but are also flawed in identifying the black and Asian faces in comparison to those of the whites.

How Facial Recognition works?

• The faces stored in a police photo database are mapped using the software.
• CCTV present at public places identifies the faces. 
• Possible matches are compared and then sent to the police. 
• However, pictures of inaccurate matches are stored for weeks.