Prepared by Nurefşan CANDEMİR

Edited by H. Begüm TOKGÖZ

INTRODUCTION

Technology affects almost every aspect of our daily lives. In the field of law enforcement, technology has many benefits, but also drawbacks, concerns, and questions. “Facial Recognition Technologies” are one of them. For this reason, “Facial Recognition Technologies” will be discussed with its various aspects in this article, and it will be considered this issue by asking essential questions and then trying to answer them.

1. WHAT IS FACE RECOGNITION?

Initially, it is needed to be explained the meaning of this technology. Face recognition systems are methods of identifying or verifying the identity of an individual using their face. Face recognition systems can be used to identify people in photos, video, or in the period. Enforcement can even use mobile devices to identify people throughout police stops[1]. Biometric authentication may be a category of biometric security. There are various types of biometric packages that embody voice recognition, fingerprint recognition, and eye membrane or iris recognition. The technology is typically used for security and social control, though there is increasing interest in various areas of use. Of all the biometric measurements, face recognition is taken into consideration as the foremost natural. Intuitively, this is often smart, since we have a bent to typically acknowledge ourselves et al. by gazing at faces, rather than thumbprints and irises. It’s countable that over half the world’s population is touched by face recognition technology often.[2] Generally, person face standardization and procurement is the first step in applications like surveillance of video, one interface, face recognition, and image database monitoring.[3]

2. HOW DOES FACE RECOGNITION WORK?

Face recognition systems use computer algorithms to choose out specific, distinctive details of a few person’s faces. These details, like the distance between the eyes or form of the chin area unit, are then reborn into a mathematical illustration and compared to knowledge on alternative faces collected in an exceedingly face recognition info. The information a few explicit faces are usually known as a face model and are distinct from a photograph as a result of it’s designed to solely embrace bound details that may be accustomed distinguish one face from another face.[4]

Facial recognition could be a software system formula accustomed verify or determining an associate individual’s identity by processing a video frame or a digital image during which the individual’s face is visible. There is square measure many totally different strategies that automatic face recognition technologies work, however they typically compare facial expression in a picture to faces contained among a piece of information.[5]

The three basic elements in face recognition are defined as:[6]

i. Person identification: Understanding who a person is in a population repertoire. It is the first step and also might be the most effective way to compare and determine one along with the people.

ii. Person verification: To find out whether the claim of the person applying with a certain identity claim is true. It helps to be sure about the person- also move on to the other steps. If we cannot make the verification of the person, it means that we cannot reach the true clues about the person or the case.

iii. Confirming the person: To ensure that the person is a previously registered person, and if he is registered, this record is updated. After being updated, this data can be used.

Step 1: Face detection

The camera detects and recognizes the image of a face, either alone or in an exceedingly crowd. The image could show the person trying straight ahead or in profile. it’s most simply detected once the person is looking straight at the camera. Face detection is the first step. When the camera detects the face, other steps will be able to be applied.

Step 2: Face analysis

A picture of the face is captured and analyzed. Most biometric authentication technology depends on second instead of 3D pictures as a result of it will additional handily match a second image with public photos or those in a very information. The software package reads the pure mathematics of your face. . These area unit key factors:

-Embody the gap between your eyes

-The depth of your eye sockets

The gap from forehead to chin

-The kind of your cheekbones, and so the contour of the lips, ears, and chin. The aim is to identify the facial landmarks that area unit key to characteristic your face. due to facial landmarks, collected information is helpful to differentiate faces.

Factors in facial identification:

Unlike fingerprints and DNA, that don’t amendment throughout a person’s life, face recognition should take into consideration various factors, such as:

• Ageing

• Plastic surgery

• Cosmetics

• Effects of misuse or smoking

• Pose of the topic

In addition, operating with good-quality pictures is additionally crucial. Low or medium quality pictures perhaps not be searchable within the IFRS system and, if they’re, the accuracy of the search and also the results themselves is considerably affected.[7]

Step 3: Converting the image to data

After analysis, every nodal purpose becomes varied within the application information. The complete numerical code is spoken as a faceprint. Rather like however everyone containing a distinctive fingerprint, everybody additionally contains a distinctive faceprint. The face capture method transforms analog data (a face) into a collection of digital data (data) that supported the person’s facial expression. Your face’s analysis is basically changed into a mathematical formula.[8]

Step 4: Finding a match

The final step of the method is finding a match. Your faceprint is compared to information of alternative facial codes. The amount of faces that square measure compared depends on the information and the way several databases the software package has access to. As an example, the FBA has access to twenty-one state databases, with 641 million photos across them. The biometric authentication technology then identifies a match for your actual face expression – it returns the user with the found match and alternative relevant data, like associate address and a reputation.[9] That can lead to one of the following results: ‘Potential candidate’, ‘No candidate’ or ‘Inconclusive’.

3. WHERE FACE RECOGNITION IS USED?

Although “security” is the main area of use, a face recognition system is used in many different areas. It is used for a variety of purposes. These include Unlocking phones, Airports and border control, improving retail experiences, Banking, Healthcare, Tracking student or worker attendance, School security, Marketing, and Advertising, Recognizing drivers, Entertaining apps, Forensic science, Monitoring gambling addictions, Finding missing persons, Reducing retail crime and Law Enforcement^,[10]

Face recognition has been utilized in airports, at border crossings, and through events like the Olympic Games. Face recognition may be utilized in non-public areas like stores and sports stadiums; however, completely different rules could be applied to non-public sector face recognition.[11]

4. HOW LAW ENFORCEMENT USES FACE RECOGNITION?

Law enforcement agencies generally use face recognition systems for different purposes all around the world especially in routine policing. For instance, Federal agencies that use enforcement officers use biometric identification technology to help criminal investigations, among different activities. The technology will facilitate establishing an unknown individual in an exceeding image or video police investigation.[12] Police collect mugshots from arrestees and compare them against native, state, and federal face recognition databases. Once an arrestee’s picture has been taken, the pic can continue to exist in one or a lot of databases to be scanned on every occasion the police do another criminal search. After that, Law Enforcement can question these massive pic databases to identify people in photos taken from- there are plenty of choices here due to the developing technology and digitalization – social media, CCTV, traffic cameras, or maybe pictures they’ve taken themselves while they are completing their tasks. Faces might be able to be compared in amount against “hotlists” of people who are suspected of any kind of criminal activities. Additionally, this technology has the potential to crack open cold criminal cases or reunite missing youngsters with their families, truly as a contribution to real life.[13]

Officers are allowed by mobile face recognition systems to use smartphones, various transferable devices to need pic a photograph of a driver or pedestrian among the sphere associated quickly compare that photo against one or extra face recognition databases to aim an identification.[14] The purpose of this tech consists of two key things. The first one is matching a face with the appropriate database and the second one is implementing essential analyzing components to find definable features from many pics to get the identity for the object image.[15]

Although the benefits of facial recognition systems especially in the law enforcement field, there are a lot of people in different countries who are afraid of this tech, mainly because of personal data protection concerns. Most of the countries have a regulation about protection data, like Turkey, but still, these are needed to be improved, because technology is quickly developing day by day, and rules which are applied today, might not be sufficient tomorrow. If we focus on reality, we can’t run away from these technologies and there is no way to go back. We must learn to deal with them and also, we must take the necessary measures, to protect data or resolve-at least decrease- concerns. In this regard, A new white paper from the World Economic Forum, in partnership with the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics of the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), and the Holland police, offers a framework to confirm the accountable use of biometric identification technology. Tests of this framework are going to start in January 2022.[16]

Facial recognition system has been employed by organizations like the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Central administrative body (CIA), Facebook, and alternative huge firms like Apple, ASUS, and then on. it’s getting used for numerous reasons however not restricted to assisting users in distinguishing, validatory, and looking at the face of an individual over outsized info of faces. Basically, face recognition works by presenting the input image and pre-processing the image, during which unwanted part within the face is removed. After that, the image is compared to the one within the info and therefore the system shows the matching image.[17] Also, every country has to be led to use these technologies for improvement. For instance, Washington was one every of the primary police departments within the country to use Amazon’s biometric authentication product, known as Recognition, in its regular operations, starting in 2017.[18] It was the biggest step that had been taken until that time and it set an example spreading the using facial recognition systems.

5. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF FACE RECOGNITION

5.1. ADVANTAGES

The most helpful space within which face recognition is important is the life science that’s used for the authentication process that makes the work easier. Face recognition is one among the widely used technologies or systems within which it has the potential to perform tasks like to own records provided by the dataset in several areas like the college and faculty attending systems, it can be an effective way in catching thieves or the terrorist or prevent the crime occurring, are often useful within the security of folk and also a lot of required security areas within the country. Face recognition is often employed by the government to verify the voter’s list, realize missing persons, find the population or census, immigration method, also provide security over net scams protective E-commerce and extremely utilized in the drugs and attention vary. This causes very high require or a true time face recognition system for many uses for the folks and government in every field of it. In this article, the most effective and specific areas of this system will be accessible above.[19]

a. Faster Process

The standard authentication ways of a person’s identity embody passwords, PINs, sensible cards, plastic cards, tokens, keys, and then forth. These can be arduous to recollect or retain and passwords will be purloined or guessed, tokens and keys will be misplaced and forgotten.[20] The process of recognizing a face takes solely a second, which has advantages for the businesses that use identity verification. In the Associate in the Nursing era of cyber-attacks and advanced hacking tools, corporations want each secure and quick technology. From a financial point of a view, identity verification permits fast and economical verification of a person’s identity.

b. Integration with Different Technologies

As a really crucial advantage, most identity verification solutions are compatible with most security software systems, and it’s simply integrated but as a bad side this situation limits the number of extra investments needed to implement it.

c. Greater Convenience

As the technology becomes a lot wider, instead of withdrawal methods their credit cards or money customers are able to pay in stores applying their face. This might save time in checkout lines. Since there’s no contact needed for biometric authentication as there’s with the process or alternative security measures – helpful within the post-COVID world – biometric authentication offers a fast, automatic, and seamless verification expertise.

d. Removing Bias from Stop and Search

Public concern over unreasonable stops and searches could also be an offer of dissipation for the police — biometric identification technology would possibly improve the tactic. By singling out suspects among crowds through associate automatic rather than method, face recognition technology would possibly facilitate shrink potential bias and cut backstops and searches on law-abiding voters.

e. Increased Security

On a state level, automatic face recognition can facilitate to the identification of terrorists or various offenders. On a personal level, automatic face recognition is usually used as a security tool for lockup personal devices and for personal police investigation cameras.

f. Reduced Crime

This system makes it easier to track down cracksmen, thieves, and trespassers. the only real information of the presence of a face recognition system can operate a deterrence, notably to petty crime. For instance: Nearly 1,500 terrorists, criminals, escapees, persons of interest, or missing persons have been identified since the beginning of INTERPOL’s facial recognition system at the end of 2016. [21]except for physical security, there are advantages of cybersecurity furthermore. corporations will use face recognition technology as a relay for passwords to access computers. In theory, the technology cannot be hacked because there’s nothing to steal or amend, as is the case with parole, this is one of its benefits.[22]

5.2. DISADVANTAGES

Even though face recognition has helped several industries to boost up their security, to help their paying system, locking their devices, massive considerations of technology increase for several individuals. This includes the very fact that the police work market is growing exponentially which face recognition systems are often found in nearly every facet of life, there’s a big quantity of individuals who square measure against this type of technology.

a. Privacy

Facial recognition technology is gaining momentum – however, at the identical time, rigorous new privacy laws square measure being enacted. for example, the EU’s General Knowledge Protection Regulation restricts newer industrial comes. Anita Bapat, a privacy partner at the business organization Kemp little, has said that capturing somebody’s countenance is resembling gathering personal information – that is, if you’re ready to use choices for identification options. Thus, organizations that may want to use face recognition technics ought to be granted categorical consent from the individual. And, even then, the consent is commonly withdrawn. In Turkey, there are concerns about personal data protection, but Turkey has a “Personal Data Protection Law”- which is of the equivalence of GDPR in Turkey, gives us information and guides us on how to protect our personal data, along with our fundamental rights and freedoms[23]. Data processors have to use Facial Recognition Systems according to article 6. In addition, GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is a guide to not being the cause of data breaches. Applying these regulations correctly is important to protect the “Right of Privacy”. Also, there may be results in Turkey according to Turkish Penal Code article 136:

Illegally Obtaining or Giving Data

Article 136 (1) Any person who illegally obtains, disseminates or gives to another person someone’s personal data shall be sentenced to a penalty of imprisonment for a term of two to four years.[24]

Therefore, not only Turkey every country has to be careful and make provision. Without measures there will be various types of sanctions.

b. Misuse of Knowledge

There is abundant concern that firms can abuse the info that they collect via face recognition. And, though a corporation has the simplest intentions, it’s invariably attainable that the info is going to be victimized if an information breach happens.

c. Errors in Identification

Face recognition technology isn’t correct 100 percent of the time. It is artificial intelligence so it might be the cause of false results. There’s the next bias once ladies and other people of color square measure known, particularly once associate obsolete algorithmic rule is employed. As face recognition is usually utilized by enforcement, errors in identification may lead to false accusations.[25]

d. Surveillance

Some worry that the utilization of identity verification in conjunction with present video cameras, computer science, and information analytics creates the potential for mass police work, that might limit individual freedom. whereas identity verification technology permits governments to trace down criminals, it might conjointly enable them to trace down normal and innocent individuals at any time.[26] Furthermore, the add pc recognition of faces has targeted on detective work individual options like the eyes, nose, mouth, and head define, and shaping a face model by the position, size, and relationships among these options. Such approaches have well-tried troublesome to increase to multiple views and have usually been quite fragile, requiring a decent initial guess to guide them. analysis in human methods of face recognition, moreover, has shown that individual options associated with their immediate relationships comprise a lean illustration to account for the performance of adult face identification.[27]

6. USE OF FACIAL RECOGNITION DURING COVID-19

There is no denying that COVID-19 and pandemic have affected our lives from beginning to end. Plenty of research has been done about almost every effect of COVID-19 so far. When the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic a new study of face recognition technology was created. This study shows us that some software system developers have created significant progress at recognizing disguised faces.[28]

When all the world was lockdown, China went into quarantine almost 2 years ago thanks to the COVID-19, after that, a face recognition package became important for determining individuals while there is no in-person contact.

It was used, as an example, as a part of the verification method for Chinese sedentary registering for the national attempt to appoint them colored QR codes that determined whether or not they had to be unintegrated. several Chinese neighborhoods conjointly reportedly put in facial recognition-enabled security access systems to switch those exploitation access cards. Some of the covid-19 cases were detected in China, then, as an example, the government put in sensors at subway entrances within the space that might sight whether or not passengers were carrying masks, their temperatures, and even their identities with their faces lined.

Facial recognition technology utilized by Shenzhen police to spot jaywalkers: China’s largest computing company Sense Time saw demand surge throughout the pandemic, as native governments in China adopted its technology to battle the coronavirus.[29]

7. THE FUTURE OF FACE RECOGNITION

Although there are still issues with coherent grades of correctness, we tend to still leaps and bounds previous wherever we have a bent to were 5-10 years ago. This business goes to keep growing and it will pave the approach for large income potencies within the next many years. the key industries that may be highly influenced by this technology adopt police work and safety. On the other hand, education and health systems are going to be shut behind.[30]

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, Facial Recognition Technology are employed by governments and private companies all over the world today. It has advantages like faster process, reduced crimes, increased security but also disadvantages like privacy, misuse of knowledge, errors in identification, and surveillance. It provides people facilities but also it makes people concerned. In order to avoid these dilemmas, governments should take the necessary precautions, avoid data breaches themselves. Also, should act more carefully to prevent possible disputes arising from criminal and data protection law regulations.

[1] “Face Recognition” https://www.eff.org/tr/pages/face-recognition

[2] “What is Facial Recognition – Definition and Explanation” https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-center/definitions/what-is-facial-recognition

[3] “FACE DETECTION AND RECOGNITION USING OPEN CV AND PYTHON”

[4] “Face Recognition” https://www.eff.org/tr/pages/face-recognition

[5] “How Facial Recognition Works: Technology Explained in Detail” https://recfaces.com/articles/how-facial-recognition-works

[6] “Face Recognition System” https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y%C3%BCz_tan%C4%B1ma_sistemi

[7] “Facial Recognition” https://www.interpol.int/How-we-work/Forensics/Facial-Recognition

[8] “What is Facial Recognition – Definition and Explanation” https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-center/definitions/what-is-facial-recognition

[9] “How Facial Recognition Works: Technology Explained in Detail” https://recfaces.com/articles/how-facial-recognition-works

[10] “How Facial Recognition Works: Technology Explained in Detail” https://recfaces.com/articles/how-facial-recognition-works

[11] “Face Recognition” https://www.eff.org/tr/pages/face-recognition

[12] “Facial Recognition Technology:Federal Law Enforcement Agencies Should Have Better Awareness of Systems Used By Employees” https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-21-105309