Description: A study on real-time facial recognition technology being used in America.
“Real-time video surveillance appears to be a simple question of supply and demand. As the technology improves, we anticipate that real-time face recognition systems will become commonplace.” 1
Authorities in Guiyang have eyes everywhere. Thanks to a vast, sophisticated camera system blanketing this Southwest Chinese city, police are purportedly able to locate and identify anyone who shows their face in public—in a matter of minutes. They can trace where you have been over the past week. If you are a citizen they can “match your face with your car, match you with your relatives and people you’re in touch with … know who you frequently meet.” 2
This is a reality made possible by real-time face surveillance. Thanks to face recognition technology, authorities are able to conduct biometric surveillance—pick you out from a crowd, identify you, trace your movements across a city with the network of cameras capturing your face—all completely in secret. No longer is video surveillance limited to recording what happens; it may now identify who is where, doing what, at any point in time.