Facial recognition in cities: The end of anonymity?

Facial recognition is one of the fastest-evolving technologies in the field of artificial intelligence. It has major implications in terms of security and counter-terrorism, but also e-commerce and industry.

Moscow plans to vastly expand its facial recognition program. Activist Alena Popova tried to push back against authorities, arguing the technology violates privacy laws — but a Russian court disagreed.

Dame Cressida Dick has slammed critics of facial recognition technology, saying they are simply "ill-informed".

Rights groups and researchers have long criticized Amazon's facial recognition software, saying it incorrectly identifies people with darker skin. The decision also came amid widespread anti-police brutality protests.

In this edition, as a faulty facial recognition match leads to the arrest of an innocent man in the US state of Michigan, we take a look at the underlying racial and gender bias of the technology. We dig deeper into the subject with MIT's Joy Buolamwini, founder of the Algorithmic Justice League, who is helping correct the code.

This week we begin by looking at South Korea's strategy against Covid-19. It has been widely praised as effective against the virus but is it corrosive to personal freedoms? Next we see how monks are racing to save a Buddhist temple from rising waters in Thailand. The result of failed economic planning at the cost of the local environment. Finally, we head to India where the pandemic has exacerbated the problem of aggressive monkeys in New Delhi. We will look at how innovative solutions such as facial recognition are being used to deal with the problem.

Russia's leading food retailer group is launching a facial recognition payment system in more than fifty Moscow supermarkets, with plans to extend the technology to its entire network.

Moscow subway users have started buying tickets using facial recognition technology. Authorities claim queues at ticket counters will be greatly shortened with the system dubbed "Face Pay". This move, however, is already sparking controversy since facial recognition has been used in the past for repressive purposes. In this edition, we explore these technologies that are being deployed in smart cities around the world and whether this means the end of anonymity in public places.

Data breaches involving facial recognition data increase the potential for identity theft, stalking, and harassment because, unlike passwords and credit card information, faces cannot easily be changed.