As cruise travel resumes, following suspensions due to COVID-19, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is working with the cruise industry to make travel safer and more efficient by implementing facial biometrics into the entry process.
The Port of Seattle Commission has voted to ban the use of biometric technology for surveillance and security purposes by government and law enforcement on all its properties, which include the downtown port and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has published the results of the 2020 Privacy Technology Demonstration (2020 Demo). Five privacy systems participated in the event, demonstrating their ability to detect and blur faces in a challenge video created by S&T.
A report took a look at the widespread use of facial recognition technology, evaluating the 100 most populated countries and comparing their use of the tech in governments, police departments, airports, schools, banks, workplaces and public transportation.
Researchers in Australia are launching a study that will use facial recognition technology to better monitor koala behavior and ultimately aid in their conservation.
The LifeLine Animal Project in Atlanta has teamed with Petco Love Lost to use facial recognition scanning in its searchable national database to reunite pets with their families.
Wearables provide public health and security teams onboard Royal Caribbean with a solid means of contact tracing, but the future may be in facial recognition.
Biometric technology, and specifically its most modern iteration, facial recognition, has found its way into security systems essential to everyone. We rely on it to safeguard some of our most prized belongings, including our smartphones, laptops and now, with Apple Pay, even our bank accounts and credit cards. Security experts applaud facial recognition as one of the most secure and efficient means of authentication available today.
Why then, has the industry most hinged on security and identification – Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) – been so slow to adopt this new wave of technology?
The reality is that most institutions of higher learning have decided to open their campuses this fall regardless of the political rancor, adding the specter of a deadly pandemic to an already challenging campus security environment where campus shootings, physical violence to women and theft usually occupy the top threat metrics for college security administrators. Because college and university campuses have thousands of students and faculty traversing a wide swath of buildings all day, every day, having an access control solution that not only addresses the security aspect of this population, but now one that must also handle myriad safety and health concerns due to COVID-19 to lessen the likelihood of the virus spreading, is a top priority.
