Google Group uses facial recognition to track rioters
10 August, 2011
category: Biometrics, Government
A Google Group called “London Riots Facial Recognition” has been formed online with a goal of leveraging facial recognition and large public groups to find a way to positively identify those involved in the looting and rioting in London, according to a Tech Crunch article.
While the group’s moderator and respective members have attempted to keep issues such as ethical and legal identification at the forefront of the discussion through featured discussion threads and emphasizing the importance of staying away from personal images from the riots some are seeing the new group’s intended actions as a form of vigilante justice.
Specifically, as the idea of leveraging available programming interfaces with facial recognition capabilities such as Face.API to sift through Facebook, Flickr and Twitter pictures and compare with photos from the riots more worries have to come light. Among the worries are overzealous participants in the Google Group getting innocent bystanders in the riot pictures involved with police as possible suspected rioters.
Read the full story here.