Biometric CCTV Surveillance Deployed in Malaysian State

China-style biometric surveillance has come to Malaysia, with authorities in the state of Penang announcing a new CCTV surveillance system that is based on facial recognition.

As Channel News Asia reports, the technology comes by way of IBM. It will be applied to video feeds from 767 surveillance cameras deployed throughout the state, with police monitoring the system through a central control room. Authorities held a launch event for the system today, but it isn’t expected to be fully implemented until May of this year.

The aim is, of course, to further aid police in fighting crime. Speaking to media, Penang head police chief, A. Thaiveegan, said that the facial recognition system will produce matches against criminal databases with “80 to 90 per cent accuracy”, which will then prompt further investigation from police officers.

The use of automated, biometric surveillance based on facial recognition emerged last year as a subject of controversy in the UK and the US, where Amazon in particular faced criticism over its sale of such technology to police authorities. But in other countries, most notably China, the use of such technologies is becoming increasingly commonplace.

Source: Channel News Asia

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January 2, 2018 – by Alex Perala