Facial Recognition... "So you're telling me there's a chance"
Just when the hack at Equifax refocused people’s attention on data security, Apple announced that facial recognition will replace fingerprint detection as the way to unlock its new iPhone.
Apple says that with facial recognition, there is only one chance in a million that someone other than you would be able to unlock your phone, compared to one chance in 50,000 that someone else’s fingerprint could unlock your phone. But, as Lloyd Christmas knows well, there's a chance...yyeeeah!
People are already debating whether facial recognition is practical for a device like a phone and even whether biometrics are really the direction we should be going to secure information.
Facial recognition: the present, but not the future
We need to understand that facial recognition is not the end state and we will develop even more robust technologies to validate identity, not only of individuals but of institutions…and even individual digital objects like an article, wallet, stock or anything really.
Identity validation is likely to move to multi-factor authentication models where a large number of items (e.g., facial recognition + fingerprint + phone number + geophysical location) will be checked simultaneously to validate whether a person or application should get access.
But will our identities be safe?
Achieving absolute certainty about identity is the foundation of the next wave of digital innovation and will be paramount in enabling the automation of a vast array of tasks, including eliminating the friction in areas like extending credit and making payments.
The launch of the iPhone X (complete with a mini fail at the demo) marks an important milestone in the pursuit of 100% reliable safeguarding and validation of identity, but it’s only another small step toward how we make the digital world much, much more safe.
Can we actually eliminate identity fraud and theft in a hyper-digital world?
I spent the last 3 years working on visual processing technologies. This area is developing quickly. Apple facial recognition is one thing but to me it's more exciting like how the underlying technology can be utilised for complex pattern discovery and classification. Applications like rouge trading behaviour detection or dubious transaction filtering already appear amongst fintech startups. Exciting times.
Technology Executive
7 年Things will change even faster with faster processing with Quantum computers and applications of blockchain within the consumer space !!
It is easier to look ahead based on what has been accomplished and finds areas of vulnerability or improvement. Incredible amount of features and identification means have come on a mere mobile in our hand and that has been possible due to pushing of envelopes by various companies and organisations. What we need is provide or utilise our collective efforts to come with new and ideas. Also do remember level security is more of a personal or situational decision. The individuals have to make efforts in old school ways to enhance the current suit of identity verification.
Focused on innovation and building next generation FinTech SaaS solutions
7 年Who would have thought we’d get facial recognition technology to the masses just a few years ago? This area will continue to evolve and evolve rapidly. Biometrics that involve forms of DNA matching is next…wait that’s #Gattaca!
Engineering
7 年Four eye validation is very popular in secured application where data theft is a risk. Even when Voice recognition is getting the attention but in banking/other secure firms, they always use second way of authentication. With Apple or any other organization going for facial recognition for authentication , data theft is always at risk. Can we use 2-way auth for this? Yes, But, how usable that would be using 2-way authentication for unlocking mere a device. Open Question, What's Next?