Europeans tend to be a little more privacy conscious than their American counterparts, but the growing prominence of biometric technologies like face recognition means E.U. countries will increasingly see tradeoffs for the sake of perceived safety and security. And not everyone seems to mind. According to the Associated Press, German authorities are testing a new automatic face-recognition system for Berlin’s Südkreuz station. The system will involve three cameras at one of the entrances and an escalator, which will presumably capture images of people’s faces and weigh them against a database. More than 200 people have volunteered to have their images and names stored, the AP writes. It’s just a test for now, but it increasingly looks like part of the new normal on both sides of the Atlantic. In January, border protection officials in the U.S. rolled out new “facial comparison” technology at New York’s JFK airport.
Earlier this year, members of Congress raised concerns about the use of face recognition databases by U.S. law enforcement. Read more about that here.
Recognize your brand’s excellence by applying to this year’s Brands That Matter Awards before the early-rate deadline, May 3.
