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March 10, 2008

Facial Recognition at the DMV

[From Biometric technology catches on with DMVs but privacy concerns slow broader reach]

A nice article on the growing use of facial recognition. A couple of interesting points:

After a driver sits for a photo at the Illinois Secretary of State office to renew a license, officials use facial-recognition technology to give the resulting image a close look. First, state officials verify that the face matches the images portrayed on previous licenses issued under the driver’s name. The second, more extensive run-through determines if the same face appears on other Illinois driver’s licenses with different names.

Since starting the program in 1999, the state has uncovered more than 5,000 cases of multiple identity fraud, said Beth Langen, policy and program division administrator at the Illinois Secretary of State office. The state pays Digimarc Corp. about 25 cents per license for the service, she said. . . . About 40 percent of the nation’s drivers are set to undergo such facial-recognition database checks when they renew their licenses in 20 states. . . . .

Police departments, eager for more investigative tools, are pressing for access to the millions of photographs in the motor vehicle databases. A few states prohibit such sharing, but many allow it.

Posted by rshah at March 10, 2008 12:52 PM

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