Law enforcement’s unmonitored use of facial recognition technology has come under increasing scrutiny in the past few months. Bernie Sanders has echoed San Francisco and called for a complete ban on the police use of the technology, while Microsoft recently stated that it will refuse to sell its facial recognition tech for mass surveillance. With…
India is moving forward with plans to set up a massive facial recognition surveillance scheme. The proposed system would centralize biometric data from multiple national databases, and would gather new data through a network of facial recognition cameras that would be set up throughout the country. Officials are hoping that the new system will help…
The Australian state of Victoria has uploaded all of its driver’s license photos to the National Driver Licence Facial Recognition Solution (NDLFRS), a comprehensive facial recognition database maintained by the federal government’s Department of Home Affairs. For the moment, the images in the database will only be available to VicRoads and Victoria Police. The Victorian…
Zion Market Research has released a new report that predicts that the global biometric technology market will hit $59.43 billion by 2025, climbing from $17.16 billion in 2018. The final figure represents a CAGR of 19.42 percent. The forecast is nearly identical to that of Grand View Research, which projected a $59.31 billion global biometrics…
The government market has always been one of the key drivers of the overall biometrics industry. That’s partly because for a long time, the government sector pretty much was the biometrics industry; other areas, like consumer-facing biometrics and FinTech, are much more recent phenomena. But the government sector has also played an outsized role because…
Macau police have announced plans for a facial and object recognition trial that leverages the city’s extensive network of CCTV surveillance cameras. Fifty cameras will be selected for the facial recognition test, while another 50 will be selected for license plate recognition. The cameras are being installed as part of Macau’s ongoing, four-phase rollout of…
Sri Lanka police are planning to roll out a new face recognition surveillance system in an effort to track down wanted criminals. The system was discussed with Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, and will be deployed alongside a database that contains information about subjects who have been ducking the authorities and avoiding capture. The criminal…
Police have now identified the three suspects involved in a brazen jewellery heist in New York that made headlines over the weekend, and the NYPD says it’s thanks to biometric technology. The heist occurred at Avianne & Co. Jewelers, where three men held up the employees at gunpoint, subdued them with zip ties and duct…
ZKTeco‘s ongoing roadshow has finally come to the US, with the company having recently showcased its offerings at the Annual Summer Conference for the Tennessee Sheriffs’ Association. As the company explained in a new post on its website, the Tennessee Sheriffs’ Association is a non-profit organization founded in 1971, and its led by a director…
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has announced that law enforcement officers will now need to undergo training in order to gain access to the state’s Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway (OHLEG), which includes the state’s facial recognition database. Until then, the AG is cutting off access to thousands of state officials, dropping the number of people…
NEC Australia is taking the Australian government to court for the unexpected termination of a Biometric Identification Services (BIS) contract. The contract in question was first signed in 2016, when Australia’s CrimTrac (now the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission) enlisted NEC Australia to upgrade the biometric capabilities of Australia’s state, federal, and territorial police. The BIS…
The Orlando Police Department is giving up on its trial deployment of Amazon’s Rekognition platform, once again ending its on again/off again relationship with the tech giant. The facial recognition tech was supposed to be part of a surveillance pilot that would allow the OPD to track suspicious individuals through the city in real time.…
“According to Javid, the new technology will help combat online child abuse and lower the amount of time that investigators need to spend looking at troubling images…” British Home Secretary Sajid Javid has voiced his support for ongoing police trials of facial recognition technology. His statements were made during the launch of new a £1.76…
The NEC Corporation will be making an appearance at next week’s INTERPOL World 2019 conference in Singapore. The event runs from July 2nd to 4th at the Sands Expo & Convention Centre, where NEC will be showcasing an array of solutions designed for government and law enforcement. Those solutions include NEC’s multi-modal biometric immigration gate,…
BI2 Technologies has solidified its existing relationship with the National Sheriff’s Association (NSA). The company has announced that it will be providing local law enforcement with a comprehensive background check solution through an exclusive 5-year contract with the NSA. The contract specifically concerns BI2’s ACCESS Background Check Program, which will now be freely available to…
New York City Police Commissioner James O’Neill has taken to the New York Times to try to dispel the public’s concerns about facial recognition technology. In the article, O’Neill details the NYPD’s operational procedures for the use of facial recognition, emphasizing that it is only a “limited and preliminary step” that informs a more rigorous…
Integrated Biometrics‘ Light Emitting Sensor (or “LES”) technology is playing a critical role in new mobile fingerprint scanning devices from SIC Biometrics. Aimed primarily at the law enforcement sector, the IdentiFi devices are designed to support either a FAP 45 fingerprint sensor for single and two-finger roll print capture, or a FAP 50 sensors for…
“Testifying at this week’s congressional hearing, an FBI representative asserted that the organization is committed to the protection of citizen’s privacy and civil liberties…” The FBI’s collection of citizens’ face images appears to have expanded considerably since a 2016 report from the Government Accountability Office exposed its secret Facial Analysis, Comparison, and Evaluation, or “FACE”,…
The Illinois House of Representatives has passed legislation that would require a fingerprint check for anyone looking to obtain a Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) card or a concealed carry license in the state. The fingerprints would be matched against Illinois police and FBI databases, offering better background checks and making it more difficult for people…