Biometric Surveillance Specialist to Bring Face Scanning to London Stadium

Israel-based AnyVision says it’s bringing biometric entry to a sports stadium in London this summer, but it’s not saying which one.

As the Evening Standard reports, the revelation came at this week’s Ifsec International Security Show in Newham, where AnyVision’s founder, Eylon Etshtein, explained that the stadium deployment will replace tickets with face biometrics, scanning individuals as they enter.

It’s meant to deliver greater convenience to sports fans, but it could also draw some controversy in a country where privacy advocates’ criticism of the use of facial recognition technology in public spaces has been growing increasingly heated. AnyVision teamed up with NVIDIA earlier this year to develop facial recognition technology aimed at the government sector, with applications such as scanning faces through CCTV feeds – exactly the kind of thing that has caused consternation among the UK’s privacy groups.

At Ifsec, Etshtein also emphasized the security capabilities of his company’s machine vision technology, noting that it can be used to detect and track things like firearms and even unattended bags. But he declined to comment on whether British police or military agencies were among AnyVision’s clients.

In any case, the use of facial recognition to speed up entry at sports stadiums is on the rise, and as long as customer data isn’t shared with government interests, AnyVision’s forthcoming deployment could escape the ire of privacy advocates in the UK.

Source: Evening Standard

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June 27, 2018 – by Alex Perala