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DeliciousAirport face scans near one million
Monday, November 23, 2009Home Secretary Alan Johnson has confirmed that nearly one million passengers have used face scanning technology to enter the country from an airport.
In a visit to Gatwick Airport, Johnson revealed more than 950,000 passengers have used the secure self-service gates, which scan their biometric details.
The new technology is initially designed to speed up a passenger's entrance to the country and make the admission checks more secure.
Johnson said the government's investment in this technology means the UK can continue to be "at the forefront of border security".
Facial recognition is just one of many technologies at use within Gatwick Airport to secure the border. Other technology includes Cyclamen, which detects radiation in cargo at the border and Braun Conpass, a full body scanner which enables the UK Border Agency to see if a passenger is carrying illegal weapons or drugs on their person.
According to the Home Office, since January, technology used in customs checks at ports has helped in the seizure of illegal drugs worth over £157m.
At the Biometrics 2009 conference held in London last month, Mr James A Loudermilk II of the FBI told the hundreds of delegates that face recognition would be the killer application of biometrics. The FBI would love to be able to use face recognition to make the US more secure. But they can't. The algorithms simply do not exist, he said, to provide the highly reliable verification required.
Speaking afterwards over lunch, with John Mears, Director of Biometric Solutions at Lockheed Martin, he said that the FBI has been investigating face recognition since 1963. They didn't invest then. And they're still not investing now.
This conclusion of the FBI's is consistent with all the evidence of large-scale field trials. The 2004 UK Passport Service biometrics enrolment trial, for example, demonstrated that 31% of participants could not have their identity verified by face recognition technology. And that was just the able-bodied participants. For the disabled, the figure rose to 52% -- you would do better to toss a coin.
The question arises, on what basis have the Home Office decided to invest in face recognition technology for ePassports, biometric visas and ID cards? There is no evidence to support their decision. They have refused so far, ever since the enrolment trial results were published in 2005, to answer that question.
With memories of Professor Nutt being sacked for telling people the truth still fresh in our memories, it is impossible not to be suspicious about this situation. Here in the UK and in Australia, too, where they use smart gates at all their airports and the Customs and Border Protection Force explicitly state that they will not give figures for the reliability of face recognition technology.
What is going on?
Time for some answers, please, Mr Johnson, Sir David Normington, James Hall and Lin Homer -- even Sir Gus O'Donnell himself. Without that, there is every reason to believe that our money is being wasted and no reason to believe that our security is being enhanced.
David Moss - London/UK/Business Consultancy Services Ltd