You may know Illinois for some of its rather strict laws around gun control, due to a large amount of gun violence. But one law that covers Illinois facial recognition, that can be just as strict, is the Biometric Information Privacy Act. This act was created to protect people’s biometric information. The act defines this as “any information, regardless of how it is captured, converted, stored, or shared, based on an individual’s biometric identifier used to identify an individual.” Biometric information unlike sensitive information, like social security numbers and bank pin codes that can be changed if the information is compromised, biometrics are unique to a person and can not be changed. Biometrics can be anything from a scan of face geometry to even voiceprint.
How does this act protect residents
This act was created to regulate the retention, collection, disclosure, and destruction of biometric information. It also protects your biometric information from being collected by big businesses without consent. As well as describing what big companies can do with your information. And the steps they must take to get rid of the information they collect. Understanding this law helps businesses navigate on how to use facial recognition to secure there facility.
How does Facial Recognition work
This works by measuring the distance between key facial features and compares the distances against a database of images. Depending on how good the software is, it can capture an extensive number of points for more accurate identification. Some even using up to 20 points of comparison.
3D sensors to capture information about the shape of a face
Skin Texture Analysis, turns the unique lines, patterns, and spots apparent in a person's skin into a mathematical space
Identify facial features by extracting landmarks
Changes in expression, including blinking, frowning or smiling and has the ability to compensate for mustache or beard growth and the appearance of eyeglasses
What it takes to use facial recognition
Security System Engineering
For commercial facilities, they require high-definition surveillance cameras that have the correct pixels-on-target, frames-per-second and overall performance required to process video analytics for facial recognition. These types of systems require extensive experience, math, and computer science skill-sets and an end-user of security should contact a qualified security engineering firm to conduct an analysis to assist in choosing the best security system for your application and needs.
Uses of Facial Recognition
The main use case that comes to mind when thinking of facial recognition is for unlocking phones. Biometrics have been used for many years by devices we use every day, whether is a fingerprint scanner or a face scan this is a lot more common than uses in big business. Companies in Illinois are using this for security, by using facial recognition to identify people that could be on watch lists or banned from stores. Though there are more use cases they are mostly replacements to streamline some rather time-consuming tasks.
Downsides of Facial Recognition
Even with technology today facial recognition has its downsides. Due to the lack of facial scans can cause large amounts of people who can’t be identified with this. This also requires a clear image of a person’s face to compare. Meaning anything blocking someone’s face can cause issues with it. So small things like hats and glasses can prevent accurate reads of faces. And the more images you try to compare it to the longer it can take. Even though it will be much faster than doing it manually.
Cases challenging the act
One case that put the act to the test was one against six flags. Where they had collected a fingerprint scan form a 14-year-old without consent from his guardian. In defense of six flags, they “argued it couldn’t be held liable unless the plaintiff demonstrated a tangible injury from the unauthorized collection.” But the Illinois supreme court ruled that you do not need to prove that damage was caused by the collection of this because it was violating the rights given by this act.
This conclusion is good because if they would have won it would create a big loophole in future cases.
Another lawsuit of recent regarding Illinois facial recognition was one against Lowe’s. Where they were using facial recognition to check for persons who had been banned from the retail chain. There was interest around this due to Lowe’s including the collection of facial scans in the privacy policy in 2018 but not in the 2019 version. This could have been left out due to them not using facial recognition anymore. Whether or not they were still using it was what was in question in the suit. Considering it can be hard to prove facial recognition is not in use when the infrastructure can be tied into an existing security camera system, which can remain in place without using the recognition software.
Ways around the act
The biggest way around is how privacy policy is by including the use of facial recognition in a company’s privacy policy. Or they are purposely vague in order to leave it up to interpretation without specifying what they do or how they use the data they collect. Due to them overloading these with way too much text most people don’t read them, causing them to sign away their protection from the collection of biometric information.
What it takes to use facial recognition
Integration with Video Surveillance Systems
For commercial facilities, they require high-definition surveillance cameras that have the correct pixels-on-target, frames-per-second and overall performance required to process video analytics for facial recognition. These types of systems require extensive experience, math, and computer science skill-sets and an end-user of security should contact a qualified security engineering firm to conduct an analysis.
