9th of July 2019: It is announced that the police will start using facial recognition cameras at Brussels Airport. The plan is that some cameras, with the facial recognition system, will be implemented on Brussels airport. What the system does, is that cameras scan faces in their view. The faces are compared with the already existing police photos that are mapped by software. Suspicious people may be stopped by security or police since their face scan matches with another picture in the database. The biggest advantage of implementing this system is that it will increase the speed of the flow on the airport. Police officers do not have to extract people from queues anymore. In other words, the time consuming random airport checks seem to become redundant. This technology is already implemented on multiple occasions. For example, all Canadian airports have already implemented facial recognition technology. A more closely related example is the Face ID from Apple, where you can unlock your iPhone/iPad with a scan of your face.
20th of September 2019: Brussels Airport experimented with facial recognition cameras for about two months. However, the police decided to stop this project. The project is not feasible from a legal point of view. It is currently against some privacy laws that restrict the full implementation of facial recognition technology. The police still want to implement the technology, but authorities have to decide whether this is legally possible in the future. For now, the plan of using facial recognition has been cancelled.
This is just one of the many news posts relates to privacy and facial recognition. People fear that their country might become a surveillance state, or doubt whether facial recognition is an effective way of providing more safety. On the other hand, there are people that prefer the increase in security and do not find this an issue for their privacy. New technologies provide further developments in the field of security. However, the ‘choice’ between security or safety remains to be a dilemma.
References:
https://www.brusselstimes.com/all-news/belgium-all-news/60350/brussels-airport-to-be-equipped-with-facial-recognition-cameras/
https://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20190920_04618911
Thanks for the sharing! It’s always controversial when a new technology is used on a large scale. On the one hand, facial recognition improves the efficiency by the quick scanning and the security by recognizing criminals. On the other hand, it may have some conflicts with the laws of some countries.
I personally support applying facial recognition more widely. The articles I read say that facial recognition is really difficult to fake and replicate thus it’s a quite reliable method for the airport check. Just as the authorities have been considering whether it will be legal in the future, I think facial recognition is the future trends. Canada has already been a good example for applying facial recognition. And currently, fingerprint recognition has been used commonly, it’s probable that in the future, facial recognition will be an additional method with higher efficiency. I think what we need to do are paying special attention to the regulations and improving supervisions of facial recognition to face ethical issues such as privacy.
Hi Qing,
I fully agree with you. Facial recognition has been implemented on airports worldwide, for example in Canada, China, Australia, United States, etc. The facial recognition mostly had positive reactions (due to the reliability as you mentioned). However, it seems that Europe currently has problems with the regulations. I personally hope that we pay more attention to the regulations, so there is a better fit between the regulations and the technologies that exist nowadays. Yet, if we implement it in airports, what will be the final line? Should facial recognition systems be implemented on the streets as well? I think the discussion between privacy and regulations will continue, and will only become more complex with the emerging technologies.