Fear of the total monitoring

Alicem everything is entrusted. The tax Declaration, and re-register a new number plate for the car apply in France, which should happen soon with a single mobile App. Alicem's the name of the Ministry of the interior commissioned the program, currently it is testing a few Thousand people.

by 2020 at the Latest to get the French about Alicem a "digital identity", says interior Minister Christophe Castaner. Enthusiasm is not. Because to use Alicem, you must be a citizen of a facial recognition software scanning. Anyone who uses the App, undertakes the biometric data for use release. France is the first EU country that recorded in great style the faces of his citizens.

The interior Ministry promises that the data will be deleted once the program has determined the identity of the user once. But privacy advocates doubt that the safety standards of the authorities are high enough to protect against hacker attacks and data Theft.

Algorithms detect Similarities

the age of the face detection is there and raises a lot of questions. The combination of high-resolution cameras and self-learning Algorithms to power Software that can recognize the Similarity, almost like a man who meets a Famous. The Software has seen so many photos of faces that you can distinguish one person from another – if you believe your sellers.

she turns, stretches or compresses the face on a photo so that the eyes are in a similar Position. This makes it comparable with other such processed images. From the prominent points – the nose, mouth, eye position, the edge of the head – it extracts the basic structure of the face: the "Template". An algorithm then calculates the Similarity between two Templates: hit or not?

In the debate on face recognition are two applications confused: face identification and face verification often advised. The face identification is not real security technology. Software-enhanced cameras, films, people, public space, and the same their faces with databases. The scary scenario: The System keeps track of people independently through the city. The face is to the bug. As a raw material could also serve photos and you have captured France now.

Apple Also uses the technology

The Alicem System is, however, a Form of face verification. The technique is to ensure that the "digital identity" is used only of citizens, one of which is you. The face serves as an access card. An access card, you can't lose, even if you want to. A similar technique Apple offers for the iPhone. Users can unlock it by holding it in front of her face.

the difference to The French System: Apple is not the state. He has an incentive to capture the faces of its citizens are Central. The police and secret services are happy about such databases. In addition, the fear that such data-looted Pools of hackers, and face images are misused. It was to train with the photo of the unsuspecting Concerned, better Algorithms, or to deceive an environment with criminal intent, and to gain access to sensitive areas.

The civil rights organisation "La Quadrature du Net" has filed a lawsuit against the introduction of Alicem. She speaks of a "banalisation of this technology" by the state. It is conceivable that facial recognition software could also be used by the police used to monitor, for example, demonstrators. It would be a strong violation of personality rights: once registered biometrically, could be followed in this scenario, his life long with political activities.

danger situations

analyze in fact, the mayor of nice, Christian Estrosi of the Republicans has led, in February during the street carnival, an Experiment with face recognition software. Signs pointed visitors to it, which zones of the carnival were monitored. The CNIL, the national Commission for the Internet and freedom of rights, complained to be not informed in good time been. Warns you by facial recognition software, the right to anonymity could be lost in the public space. Also Alicem sees the CNIL critical. Biometric data – iris patterns, fingerprints, facial images, it is applicable in the EU as being particularly worth protecting. They are classified as more intimate than, for example, the Name, on a level with the DNA of a human, or the secrets of his sexual life.

Despite all the assurances, well to the data and take care of, there is a growing fear of the use of facial identification. The better the databases are networked behind it, in which the faces of residents and non - residents, asylum seekers, Criminal, legal visitors to the country as well as internationally sought-after people are saved, the higher the probability that the System recognizes the Person as well. At least, as long as it works as planned.

monitoring project in Germany

Currently, the inability of the technique, however, is more the Problem, not your perfection. In the case of people moving and not frontal to the camera run, pushes the detection limits. This was the case on the dispute over the test run for face identification at the Berlin train station Südkreuz, one of the most exciting monitoring projects in the past years in Germany. In the pilot project, filmed with three cameras, parts of the station. Software was looking for familiar faces in the flow of people – not terrorists, but the Volunteers were rewarded with Amazon vouchers.

The Test should help clarify whether the face detection ceiling ready for widespread use. According to the Federal Minister of the interior, it is that: The systems had "proven in an impressive way", said Horst Seehofer at the time. A broad introduction is "possible". The German Association of lawyers, opposition politicians and privacy advocates see it differently. The Federal privacy Commissioner Ulrich Kelber referred to the facial recognition as "intervention intensive measure". He sees a "strong violation of the basic right", for there is no legal basis.

The Figures presented Seehofer proud of, are 80 percent and 0.1 percent: The Software detected four out of five people being sought and hit with a 1000 faces by mistake. The hackers from the Chaos Computer Club, spoke of a "deliberate positive distortive number". However, even if you believe the statistics, not good for the face detection a lot. Because what sounds like a reliable System is, in fact, inappropriate, to put it in a big style to use.

every Day, millions of traveling with the Deutsche Bahn. The several Hundred wanted criminals are. The Software would identify 80 percent of the criminals, but thousands of false alarms on the day of trigger. Alone at Südkreuz, the police would have to sort out each year 60'000 Innocent people by hand, which has declared a supposedly intelligent Software to criminals. "0.1% false hit rate is definitely too much," said the Nuremberg computer science Professor Florian Gallwitz. Your face triggers a false Alarm, because citizens might have to get used to in the coming decade.

Since June, a further Test with the video cameras running at Südkreuz. This time, no faces, but any suspicious behavior should be recognized. "Intelligent video analysis technology," as it's called in the Federal police, to identify risk situations independently: collapsed people, ownerless bags and "fast movements of groups of people", which could indicate violence. Months layers and ran the extras through the station, draped pieces of Luggage, and should re-enact scenes, to the Software challenge. Now the experiment is complete, the Federal police evaluates the data. In July, the taz reported, the Tests were not run according to the Deutsche Bahn according to Plan. We are still far from situations, according to a precise scenario to reproduce.

According to opponents of the technology, we find ourselves at a crucial point: The face detection for a paradigm shift in the monitoring state, it was an unprecedented Intrusion into the privacy that should be prevented. Going on an international revolt against the construction of a system of comprehensive face databases, and the cameras, is to capture the faces and with databases match. On Thursday the civil rights organization ACLU stated that it had sued the US government, information about your transactions with the companies of Software for facial recognition to be published. It is also a question of whether or not the state analyzed, such Software is sufficient and understands that the privacy guarantee.

France appeased critics Alicem, no one will be obliged a digital identity. You can continue to go to the office, take a number and wait. However, could arise as a result of an administration of the two speeds. Quick processes for those who have your biometric data recorded. And a significantly slower process for the 13 million French people who use the Internet little or not at all.

Created: 02.11.2019, 17:39 PM