Last week, the New York Times published an article exposing the National Security Agency’s (NSA) plan to build a sophisticated facial recognition database with millions of photos intercepted from online profiles.
According to the Times article—which was written with information from secret documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden—the NSA has been concentrating on collecting identifiers such as images and fingerprints, on top of traditional oral and written communication, in its surveillance efforts.
“It’s not just the traditional communications we’re after: It’s taking a full-arsenal approach that digitally exploits the clues a target leaves behind in their regular activities on the net to compile biographic and biometric information” that can help “implement precision targeting,” noted a 2010 document, cited in the New York Times report.
As much as these revelations are inspiring some online outrage from Americans, it’s certainly not just the NSA using biometric technologies to ‘improve national security’.
Governments globally make up more than 45 percent of total end users of facial recognition technology. This demand is actually spurring major growth in the Global Facial Recognition Market, which is posting a CAGR of 26.6 percent from 2013-2018.
In recent years, there has been a substantial increase in the number of cyber-attacks on government departments and installations, and governments are looking for ways to protect their critical data in defence, intelligence and finance in the name of national security.
On top of that, whether you like it or not, there are some interesting market trends that indicate facial recognition is here to stay.
Emergence of 3D Facial Recognition Systems
3D facial recognition is achieved by integrating two cameras that are synchronized together to reconstruct a 3D facial template for a user, and capture information about their facial characteristics. This information is then used to identify distinctive features of a face, such as the curve of the eye sockets, nose, and chin. The system has enhanced the accuracy level of facial recognition systems such that it can easily identify identical twins accurately.
Increased R&D Spending by Vendors
In recent years, the vendors in the Global Facial Recognition market have increased R&D spending on biometric readers. The increased focus on R&D has resulted in the introduction of products with better accuracy and more integration ability. Thus, high accuracy, integration ability, and lower price are expected to lead to the higher adoption of facial recognition solutions during the forecast period. Thus, the trend of increasing spending on R&D is expected to augur well for the growth of the market.
Emergence of Mobile Phone Biometrics
In recent years, the Global Facial Recognition market has witnessed a strong growth in mobile phone biometrics, especially in government departments. The growing usage of smartphones coupled with the growing number of identity thefts is expected to drive the adoption and usage of mobile-phone-based facial recognition systems during the forecast period. For instance, Samsung uses facial recognition systems in some models of smartphones.
Increasing Number of Mergers and Acquisitions
The Global Facial Recognition market is witnessing an increasing number of mergers and acquisitions, and this trend is expected to continue during the forecast period. The existing vendors and new entrants are taking the acquisitive route to either enter the market or broaden their portfolio of offerings.
The moral of the story: Facial recognition technology is just going to get more sophisticated and more ubiquitous as more governments globally follow the NSA’s lead in an attempt to protect data and assets from cyber threats.
