China Is the Biggest Face Recognition Tech Exporter, Followed by the US
(Tech Times, Jan 24, 2023)
Apparently, Chinese companies are the most active in the global face recognition export market, with 201 export transactions, followed by American companies with 128. Overall, China dominates artificial intelligence (AI), with 250 out of 1,636 export transactions to 136 importing nations incorporating AI of some kind. After China, the US was the second-largest exporter of AI, with 215 contracts signed. According to Wired, the research warns that other governments may conduct greater monitoring because of these exports, which might negatively impact human rights in those countries.
French Privacy Chief Warns Against Using Facial Recognition for 2024 Olympics
(Politico, Jan 24, 2023)
The French data protection authority's president Marie-Laure Denis warned Tuesday against using facial recognition as part of the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics security toolkit. "The members of the CNIL's college call on parliamentarians not to introduce facial recognition, that is to say the identification of people on the fly in the public space," she told Franceinfo. The French government is seeking to ramp up France's arsenal of surveillance powers to ensure the safety of the millions of tourists expected for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics. The plans include AI-powered cameras for the first time — but not facial recognition.
Privacy Litigation 2022 Year In Review: Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA)
(Mondaq, Jan 24, 2023)
In 2022, at least 90 court rulings referenced BIPA, a rise from the 74 rulings in 2021. Although there were no substantive decisions issued from any United States Court of Appeals, federal district courts issued 85 rulings. Illinois issued the most federal decisions, but we saw an increase in federal court decisions outside of that state, with five from Washington, one from Wisconsin, one from New York, one from Florida, one from Alabama, and three from California. The range of BIPA settlement amounts broadened in 2022. Final class-wide settlements were approved in the range of $250,000 to $100 million, an expansion from the 2021 range of $1.6 million to $10 million. Notably, the first BIPA privacy class action trial resulted in a $228 million jury verdict.
AI versus Identity Attacks: Deep Learning Software Bolsters Digital Fingerprinting
(AIthority, Jan 24, 2023)
Companies collect and analyze Big Data-sized information on their network events every day. It’s only a fraction of the big data that companies could log if they had the resources. According to Daniel Rohrer, NVIDIA’s vice president of software product security, the security problems arise from big data characteristics. The fact that it’s a big-data problem is also good news, Rohrer said in a talk at GTC in September (watch free with registration). “We’re already well on the way to combining our cybersecurity and AI efforts,” he said.
Qatar National Bank Rolls Out Contactless Biometric Payments
(NFCW, Jan 24, 2023)
Customers of Qatar National Bank (QNB) can now authenticate contactless payments for purchases at merchants in Qatar using their face and without needing to use a physical payment card or smartphone. QNB is the first bank in Qatar to roll out biometric payments using facial recognition technology, which it says “will be helping merchants in Qatar to offer customers the simplicity, convenience and security of facial biometric payments”. Users can sign up for the service by registering their face with a selfie and linking it to their chosen card or by scanning a QR code at a participating retail outlet. “The technology enables customers to authenticate payments for goods and services through facial verification, without a physical card or mobile phone after initial enrolment,” QNB explains.
Researchers Used Facial Recognition Technology to Identify a Long Lost Painting By Raphael
(Artnet, Jan 24, 2023)
There appears to be a new painting by the Italian Renaissance great Raphael, and we have an unusual source to thank: facial recognition technology. Based on the close similarities of the face of the Madonna in the previously unattributed de Brécy Tondo and Raphael’s Sistine Madonna, a research team from the University of Nottingham and University of Bradford, both in the U.K., has determined that there is a 97 percent chance that the mysterious round painting, studied by scholars and art historians for decades, is the work of the famed Old Master, reports the BBC. Researchers compared the two works using an artificial intelligence facial recognition system that University of Bradford professor of visual computing Hassan Ugail began developing in 2002.
