We are all familiar with facial recognition by now from - for example - the smartphone world. It works simply; a camera 'recognizes' your face by taking a three-dimensional scan of it, which is then compared with scans from a database. If your face is recognized, then a certain action is performed, such as unlocking your smartphone, or transferring an amount of money via an app.
The Chinese newspaper South China Morning Post reported a few days ago that the Beijing municipality is in the process of implementing facial recognition in homes. Currently, according to the local government, homes in Beijing are too often illegally sublet, which it believes can be easily prevented through facial recognition. This makes sense, of course; after all, with the right "physical" key, anyone can enter and exit a house, and with facial recognition only those registered in the database.
The Beijing municipality's policy is a great example of how innovation can make the world safer, more legal and convenient. Especially when you consider what other possibilities this technology can offer. After all, in addition to providing entry and exit into homes, it can also track which people are in homes, thereby increasing the safety and livability of the city. To give an example: if a single, very elderly resident of a house has not come out for a while (and something serious may have happened), a notification can automatically be sent to the authorities, who in turn can take a look at the house to see if everything is going well. Moreover, should the faces of the authorities also be included in the database, they can enter without forcing any doors.
So very convenient and safe. But are there only advantages? Of course not; China does not have a very good reputation when it comes to safeguarding the privacy of its citizens. Citizens are being watched more and more, and the government is doing this more and more with unique identification numbers linked to specific citizens. A controversial "credit system" is even set to begin in 2020, where citizens can receive a negative "score" after misconduct (such as "frivolous spending") and even miss out on career and educational opportunities as a result. The subtitle to the Chinese article also seems a bit ominous in that context: 'The smart lock is one of the latest hi-tech tools authorities are using to keep an eye on its citizens'.
This is all the more true now that it was revealed today from research by the Consumers Union that facial recognition is not as secure as one might expect. Indeed, a large number of smartphones could be unlocked simply by showing passport photos of the relevant users. While there are also secure smartphones - the test showed that these were generally the more high-end devices - and the technologies in the homes are bound to be of good quality, this does put the above in a different perspective. But perhaps this is also conservative thinking of myself; after all, keys are also easy to forge, and locks to "picklock.
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This article can also be found in the Internet of Things dossier
