The Extinction of Privacy and Personal Security Via Biometrics and the Cashless Society
by the retail personalisation company RichRelevance, respondents were
asked to rate a suite of in-store shopping technologies as either “cool”
or “creepy”, and facial recognition fell decidedly on the creepy end of
the scale.
In this survey it was found that companies will soon be using a range
of technical tools to achieve sales via personalised product
recommendations and promotions, screens displaying their products,
possibly utilising an image of you and even getting assistants to bring
products, say clothes, and automatically unlock dressing room doors.
Of course, the only way they can do this is by using facial
recognition systems. As soon as you walk in store, your mobile gives you
away. This provides the retailer with sufficient information to
identify your age and gender, whether you are are a high value customer
and your spending habits. All of this was found to be very ‘creepy’ by
respondents.
There are no laws or guidelines limiting their use and as soon as it
gets into the wrong hands problems occur. One would not normally think
that our own security services would be a threat to innocent civilians
going about their lawful business.
Police forces in England and Wales have uploaded up to 18 million “mugshots” to a facial recognition database –
despite a court ruling to be unlawful. They include photos of people
never charged, or others cleared of an offence, and were uploaded
without Home Office approval.
