FBI begins installation of $1 billion face recognition system across America

Russia Today

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has reached a milestone in the development of their Next Generation Identification (NGI) program and is now implementing the intelligence database in unidentified locales across the country, New Scientist reports in an article this week. The FBI first outlined the project back in 2005, explaining to the Justice Department in an August 2006 document (.pdf) that their new system will eventually serve as an upgrade to the current Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) that keeps track of citizens with criminal records across America . -[Full Article]

NSA social spy network Facebook to use facial recognition technology to track individuals across photos, videos

(NaturalNews) Have you ever been "tagged" by someone - a friend, a co-worker, or perhaps someone you don't really know that well but who may be a friend of a friend - on Facebook? You may want to rethink that whole concept, thanks to a little purchase the social media giant made recently.

Facebook has purchased Face.com's facial recognition technology, which techies say will make it faster and easier to tag photos, but which privacy experts say could become an issue, according to a report in InformationWeek.

The social media company, whose stock price has steadily fallen since its initial public offering in mid-May, paid between $55-60 million for the Israeli-developed mobile recognition technology, Techcrunch.com, adding that it "could potentially allow you to upload a photo to Facebook while on the go, instantly receive suggestions of whom to tag, and confirm the tags with one click."

"This is important to Facebook because right now there's probably a ton of untagged mobile photos getting posted. Those are lost opportunities for engagement because when you get notified that you've been tagged in a photo, you probably visit Facebook immediately to check it. These tags also help Facebook understand who a photo is relevant to, so it can feature it in the news feeds of your closest friends," Techcrunch.com reported.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/036267_Facebook_facial_recognition_tracking.html#ixzz1yeO5jLUB

FBI to launch nationwide facial recognition service

Nextgov

The FBI by mid-January will activate a nationwide facial recognition service in select states that will allow local police to identify unknown subjects in photos, bureau officials told Nextgov.

The federal government is embarking on a multiyear, $1 billion dollar overhaul of the FBI's existing fingerprint database to more quickly and accurately identify suspects, partly through applying other biometric markers, such as iris scans and voice recordings...[Full Article]

Pentagon Developing Spy Drones to Spot “Adversarial Intent”

Predatory police state shifts focus to ‘guilty until proven innocent’

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Thursday, September 29, 2011

The Pentagon is developing spy drones that can identify individuals by their facial features and also denote targets by their “adversarial intent,” part of the new approach of treating everyone as guilty until proven innocent as law enforcement across America turns to unmanned vehicles as a crime fighting tool.

The Army has recently handed out six contracts to companies in the pursuit of developing a system that can tag and track an individual based on their facial biometrics and track them permanently even if they get lost in a crowd.

“If this works out, we’ll have the ability to track people persistently across wide areas,” says Tim Faltemier, the lead biometrics researcher at Progeny Systems Corporation, which recently won one of the Army contracts. “A guy can go under a bridge or inside a house. But when he comes out, we’ll know it was the same guy that went in.”

Once the system captures an image composed of just 50 pixels of the person’s face, it can then build a complete 3D profile and keep track of their movements from 750 feet away.

“With backing by the Army, researchers from Notre Dame and Michigan State Universities collected images of faces at a “Twins Days” festival. Progeny then zeroed in on the twins’ scars, marks, and tattoos — and were able to spot one from the other. The company says the software can help the military “not only learn the identity of subjects but also their associations in social groups,” reports Wired.

Related software designed to identify individuals “most likely to harbor ill will toward the U.S. military or its objectives,” is also being developed for the Army by Charles River Analytics. Their “Adversary Behavior Acquisition, Collection, Understanding, and Summarization (ABACUS)” tool uses information collated from phone calls, informant tips and drone footage to create “threat assessments of individuals and groups”.

As we have previously reported, using technology to identify “malintent” is now the cutting edge of predatory police state technology set to be used against the American people as the entire focus of law enforcement shifts to guilty until proven innocent.

Pre-crime face scanning “lie detectors” are already being readied for airport and other “security” applications. If the technology judges you to be harboring emotions of distress, fear or distrust, you’ll be subjected to an interrogation. The fact that the system “successfully discriminates between truth and lies in about two-thirds of cases,” which equates to little more accuracy than chance alone, making it even less reliable than the notorious polygraph test, doesn’t seem to be a major concern for the developers.

The DHS also recently field tested their “FAST” program, which is also based around forcing people to undergo interrogations and then measuring their physiological responses to decide whether or not they have “malintent” and could be a criminal or a terrorist.

If you think that drone technology is solely for use against insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq, then think again. Everything developed for use in war zones abroad is already being tested domestically.

The Department of Homeland Security has already given the green light for a helicopter-style drone that can tase suspects from above.

“There’s a good chance ShadowHawk’s spine tingling buzz could be heard approaching a city near you,” reported Singularity Hub.

“As a sign of new law enforcement tactics to come, the Sheriff’s Office of Montgomery County, Texas was recently awarded a grant by the Department of Homeland Security for a squadron of ShadowHawks. Montgomery County’s Chief Deputy Randy McDaniel is psyched. “We are very excited about the funding and looking forward to placing the equipment into the field. Both my narcotics and SWAT units have been looking at numerous ways to deploy it and I absolutely believe it will become a critical component on all SWAT callouts and narcotics raids and emergency management operations.”

*********************

Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show.

Legions Of Biometric Face Scanning Cameras To Be Installed At Heathrow Airport Within Weeks

To be linked up to huge database of travelers through boarding passes

Steve Watson
Prisonplanet.com
July 21, 2011

In addition to full body scanners and enhanced grope downs, the latest big brother nightmare to hit airports comes in the form of biometric facial recognition cameras, set to be rolled out in terminals at London’s Heathrow Airport in September.

After an eighteen month trial, the Aurora Imaging Recognition (AIR) biometric system with enhanced image infrared cameras has been approved for use in the airport at terminals 1 and 5, reports the London Evening Standard.

Heathrow Skyport describes the process that travelers will have to undergo after the system is adopted:

Passengers are enrolled into the system and the biometric photo is linked with the boarding pass number on entry into the common user lounge, otherwise known as the departure lounge, at the first security check point.

Each passenger is then verified against their previous enrolment when the airside area before heading towards their departure gate.

It has the ability to identify people from a distance of 40cm to one metre, meaning that personal space is not imposed upon, and has been designed for people of different heights, including wheelchair users and children.

Tests conducted by the independent airport operator BAA and the UK Border Agency found that each face scan takes approximately 4-5 seconds.

There is no indication that anyone will be allowed to opt out of the procedure, meaning that for all travelers it will be compulsory to have a face scan and be added to the database in order to fly out of the terminal.

The justification for the system is to prevent passengers swapping tickets in the departure lounge, potentially allowing an international passenger to fly domestically, thus bypassing immigration checks.

The operators also say that the system will “help identify potential terrorists”, however it is not clear how this is possible given that they also claim that all data collected will be stored for up to 24 hours and then destroyed.

It is exactly this kind of loose justification and the bandying about of the word “terrorism” to sell nothing more than pure security theatre that has led to such a rampant backlash against the TSA takeover in the US.

The British government has been moving toward the use of such systems for some time. Three years ago we reported that passport control officers at UK airports were to be phased out in favour of the biometric cameras.

It was then revealed two months later that Interpol, the International Criminal Police Organization, wishes to integrate a facial database with its already existing fingerprint and DNA databases.

The organization, is planning to expand its role into the mass screening of passengers moving around the world by creating a face recognition database to catch wanted suspects, reported the London Guardian at the time.

Such a database will hold the records of every citizen who has ever traveled in and out of virtually every country in the world, representing intelligence agency style bulk interception of information.

We have previously noted that the vast array of databases currently being employed by intelligence agencies, government and law enforcement agencies worldwide were designed to be linked together in a system which will tie in the management and control of all facets of life for citizens to one central hub.

2008 saw the announcement of a vast intelligence program to establish a global biometric database known as “Server in the Sky” that will collate and provide an ” International Information Consortium” with access to the biometric measurements and personal information of citizens across the globe in the name of fighting the “war on terror”.

As reported by the London Guardian, the long term plan is being formulated by the FBI with the cooperation of the home offices and law enforcement agencies of American allies. The technology is being supplied by the US defense company Northrop Grumman.

Furthermore, the use of such technology, as we have already seen, will not be limited to the passport control office.

A 2007 British government report muted an extensive upgrade to cctv systems all across the country to incorporate facial scanning technology. The report suggested a central database of every camera and a network allowing access to it could be beneficial.

In the US there are several schemes that use Facial Recognition Technology in conjunction with Federal agencies, tying the technology to traditional documents such as drivers licenses, passports and credit cards.

A biometric face recognition system has already been approved in China and is expected to be used at airports, customs entrances, banks, post offices, residential areas and other public places in the near future.

Other proposals include placing the cameras in every seat on aircraft and installing software to try and automatically detect terrorists or other dangers caused by passengers.

We are assured that cigarette vending machines will employ the technology in order to enforce smoking laws. Similarly, supermarkets in the UK have already started trialing the technology with the justification being a crackdown on underage drinking.

In Japan facial scanning cameras are being installed in train and bus stations to replace tickets in a move to make the individual features of the face a “unique bar code” as part of an antiterrorism and anticrime initiative.

Police in Tokyo are also asking home and shop owners to mount the cameras outside their properties. “Police investigating an incident in the neighborhood would have access to these images.” according to reports.

Cell phones and computers are now also being produced with face scanning cameras, and even facebook has now integrated facial recognition software.

The prospect of the technology being so widely used was recently even critisized by Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt. A prominent Bilderberger and a man who once said that internet users should have no expectation of privacy, Schmidt said “Show us 14 photos of yourself and we can identify who you are,” before warning governments of adopting any “foolish” legislation that would see facial recognition technology become a part of everyday life.
——————————————————————

Steve Watson is the London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’ Infowars.net, and Prisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham in England.

“Minority Report” Scanners Are Coming: Company Receives $15 Million to Develop Long-Range Facial Recognition Technology

Singularity Hub

Ever heard of a company called Digital Signal Corporation? Neither had I.

Well, remember the movie “Minority Report,” how cameras everywhere would scan Tom Cruise, instantly recognizing him to either welcome him into the shopping mall or send the cops after him? The same sort of facial recognition technology is exactly what Digital Signal Corporation is into–except these guys are for real.

Marketwire recently reported that DSC received $15 million to develop three dimensional long-range biometric facial recognition technology...[Full Article]

Facebook Facial Recognition Could Get Creepy

Yahoo / PC World

In early April, Engadget posted a short article confirming a rumor that Facebook would be using facial recognition to suggest the names of friends who appeared in newly uploaded photos. You’d be allowed to opt out of tagging, and only friends would be able to tag each other in albums. Nevertheless, a commenter beneath the story quipped, “Awesome! Now I can take pictures of cute girls at the grocery store or at the park, upload them and Facebook will tell me who they are! (I'm pretty sure that’s not [how] it works but I’m sure it will get there.)”

The commenter’s confidence says a lot: Facial recognition may be just one more way for Facebook to push the visual part of the social graph (photos of us) toward being more public and far less private. Facebook has a history of asking for forgiveness after the fact instead of asking for permission in advance, and its new face-recognition feature could become the latest example of a seemingly innocuous development morphing into a serious threat to the privacy of our (visual) data. And as usual, some Facebook users will like the convenience of the new features so much that they will forget the privacy trade-off altogether, or just choose not to worry about it...[Full Article]

Face Recognition in Google and Facebook

Google Face Recognition App in Development



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7pEg-qp2jE

Uploaded by NewsyTech on Apr 12, 2011

(Image Source: CNN)

BY CHRISTINE SLUSSER

ANCHOR CHANCE SEALES

Google is in the midst of planning an app that would identify a person's face in a photo, then pull their personal information--like Facebook Flickr, or even a cell phone number.

CNN reports Google has had the technology to do this for years--but is still hesitant about privacy issues. It's not just some quote "start-up" company with nothing to lose... (Video: Google)

"Google also is concerned about the legal implications of facial recognition. Even during trials among its own employees, Google has taken steps to ensure testers have explicitly agreed on record to try out the service."

...and while users have to give Google permission before it can pull such info-- Digital Quest points out that once agreement is given... it could be dangerous.

"Imagine a guy takes a picture of a woman in a bar and then he knows her address just because somewhere on the Web there is an association of her address with her photo."

And while the latest buzz is on Google's most recent announcement--it seems it's already been done. As Seen on Phone--a website dedicated to mobile news-- says a demo-Android app called Viewdle, may have just beat Google to the punch.

"What you're seeing here is a concept of facial recognition working as the video is being played, so you see the boxes are face to text, the name is a face-recognition, then we take that name, hook it up to a social network and are able to pull down status updates as they're happening. As you see in the video, the idea is that our algorithms are fast enough to run 100% local to the device."

Other face recognition technologies are being implemented in China right now. NTDTV explains the device can recognize up to 1400 faces and costs around $720.

"This is made possible by a device called the "Hanvon Face ID" that was developed in China. The device uses infer-red technology to scan a 3D image of a person's face, these images are then stored on the device's internal chip, so it doesn't have to be connected to an external server."

So...is Google too worried about privacy issues--or is this technology scary? Tell us in our comments section.

Google Plans Facial Recognition App That Can Pull Up Personal Data When It Sees A Face (Updated)

Popular Science

March 31, 2011

It was only a matter of time, and that time is fast approaching: Google is incubating a mobile app that will use facial recognition technology to identify people and access their personal info via photos snapped with a digital camera or mobile device. Privacy advocates, prepare for war.

For its part, Google is trying to get in front of the privacy argument that is undoubtedly coming (Google is getting pretty good at this by now) by assuring users that they will have to opt into such a service by checking a box. And the search giant is working on added layers of security and privacy to ensure that only those who want to be photographically found will be.

The idea is that Google’s massive search resources could be used to trawl social networks, online photo sharing sites like Flickr and Picasa, and the like to associate an individual’s face with his or her online presence. This, of course, could also include contact info like email addresses and phone numbers. It would at the very least identify a person by name, with which any reasonably tech-savvy person could track down contact information anyhow...[Full Article]

Facebook Launches Facial Recognition Tagging



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kHGsKnf3_I

Uploaded by NewsyVideos on Dec 18, 2010

Transcript by (http://www.newsy.com)

You're watching multisource technology video news analysis from Newsy.


BY ZHENG HWUANG CHIA

Tired of tagging the gazillion pictures from the weekend? Mark Zuckerberg feels you. ABC explains Facebook's new brainchild -- Tag Suggestions.

"Facebook adds facial recognition software. The new technology will make it easier to identify friends on the photos you upload. It works by matching new photos to others that have already been tagged, and suggests people that you may want to tag. The feature will begin rolling out next week."

Mashable tells us more.

"Facebook fills in the 'Who is this?' box with its suggestion — all you have to do is click the 'Save Tags' button to accept."

If you're a little freaked out by this new feature, don't worry-- you're not alone. An anchor from HLN is with you.

"Some people are loving this, but if you find this a little bit creepy, like I do, you can opt out of it."

And the Facebook blog says -- opting out is simple.

"If for any reason you don't want your name to be suggested, you will be able to disable suggested tags in your Privacy Settings. Just click 'Customize Settings' and 'Suggest photos of me to friends.' Your name will no longer be suggested in photo tags, though friends can still tag you manually."

So, what makes Facebook think it knows your friends better than you do? Well, Urlesque says apparently it knows, but it ain't telling how.

"The feature only makes suggestions when the algorithms have 'high confidence' in their accuracy, but Facebook hasn't released what percentage of confidence is required to make a suggestion. How exactly are we measuring confidence here?"

Commenters on India's TechTree say they're so concerned about the new function they're considering calling it quits with Facebook.

Comment 2: "Calling this creepy is a massive understatement. ... This is going to result in huge lapses in privacy and security of Facebook users. The wise thing is to quit Facebook now and join a safer social networking platform."

Finally - a Facebook executive tells CNET the feature actually enhances privacy, despite all the concerns to the contrary.

Chris Cox: ... Every time a tag is created, it means that there was a photo of you on the Internet that you didn't know about. ... Once you know that, you can remove the tag [or] write to the person, and say, 'I'm not that psyched about this photo."

So what do you think about the new feature?

Get more multisource technology video news analysis from Newsy.

Transcript by Newsy.

Ordinary businesses scanning your every move

When the 24 Hour Fitness chain announced it was scanning the fingerprints of members for entry into its gyms, the move was hailed as a step forward in preventing fraud and criticized as a step backward into Big Brother territory. But no matter how you feel about the tech-enhanced measures that businesses now take to keep an eye on you, know that they're here to stay.

Companies will be spending $7.4 billion on so-called biometric technologies by 2012, Victor Lee, a senior consultant with the International Biometric Group (IBG), told SC Magazine, a publication for IT security professionals. Fingerprint-recognition will occupy 38.1% of the market; face recognition, 19%; iris recognition, 7.7%. One older technology, blood vein pattern recognition, can still hang with the gizmo'd up new kids and is expected to grab 10% of the security budget.

Some of these outfits are not normally associated with high security needs. Remember the Rockwell song that goes, "I always feel like somebody's watching me"? You'll be singing that tune from the ATM to the candy dispenser. The following are everyday enterprises that in their own way have joined the surveillance generation...

[Full Article]

Face recognition cameras installed in UK school to track students

(NewsCore) - A British high school has installed a £9,000 ($14,238) face recognition camera to discourage students from turning up late to classes -- and plans to use the system to track teachers.

Sir Christopher Hatton School in Northamptonshire. Central England, is one of the first in the country to install the monitors, which will be used to track more than 200 senior year students.

It uses two cameras to produce a 4D scan and identifies faces by measuring eyes, nose and face shape -- and can distinguish between identical twins. It records pupils¿ attendance and enables the school to have those arriving late make up the time at the end of the day...

[Full Article]