TECH

Facial recognition system uses photos taken from the internet without permission

The face recognition system is a technology that is based on algorithms that study the distinctive features of human faces. Through it it is possible to identify a person through a digital image or even a video frame, comparing these traces with those that it has in its database.
This technology is used for the most varied purposes. Its main applications relate to security issues, although it can also be used, for example, as a method of authentication in banks, or even as a way to unlock the phone.
In order to allow and improve its operation, it is necessary to use hundreds of thousands of photos. As such, the Internet is increasingly presenting itself as an attractive database for the development of this technology. You can easily find images categorized by age, gender or skin tone, among other features.
According to NBC News, it is precisely with the use of the internet that companies like IBM have been developing their facial recognition research. Last January, the American company made available one million images taken from the Flickr site and codified them to categorize the appearance of the photographers.
However, when contacted by NBC, the photographers responsible for the images reacted with surprise as they became aware that their photos were being used to develop facial recognition algorithms. Greg Peverill-Conti, the author of more than 700 of these photos, even stated that none of the people he photographed would have the slightest idea that his image would be used for those purposes.
Despite IBM's assurances that users can leave the database at any time, the issue is not so simple. The company asks photographers to email the links to the photos they wish to remove, but did not publicly disclose the list of Flickr users and photos it included. Therefore, it is difficult to find out which photos are being used.
According to Jason Schultz, a professor of law at NYU, this type of practice is recurring on the part of Artificial Intelligence research teams, claiming that they "take whatever pictures are available." In addition to Flickr, Facebook, Wikipedia, Google Images or YouTube have been used increasingly as a source of images and videos in the development of the facial recognition system. Mundophone