New York State’s use of facial recognition at the DMV is paying dividends, reports WIBX.
The state’s Department of Motor Vehicles started using the technology in 2010. It’s designed to use facial biometrics to verify the identities of driver license applicants, helping to cut down on duplication and identity fraud. And apparently it’s working: Since its implementation, it has led to 3,800 arrests. And the system has already produced over a hundred arrests and 900 investigations since its technology was upgraded in January, according to WIBX.
This kind of application of facial biometric technology is increasingly popular among government agencies dealing with identity documents, with the Arizona Department of Transportation having reported a dramatic improvement in its ability to detect fraud when it implemented similar technology last year, for example. For its part, New York’s DMV partnered with its counterpart in New Jersey in order to cross-check driver data in order to fight fraud even more effectively.
While such applications of facial recognition could lead to discomfort among privacy rights advocates, it’s worth noting that New York’s DMV is not known to be one of the participants in the FBI’s biometrics-sharing FACE program; the technology appears to be used only to weed out fraudsters in this case, and that’s an aim many can get behind.
Source: WIBX 950 AM
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August 24, 2016 – by Alex Perala
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