The Observer - 04.08.2019

The Observer

04.08.19 25

Science Tech

P

aul Wilks runs a

Budgens supermarket

in Aylesbury,

Buckinghamshire. Like

most retail owners,

he’ d had problems

with shoplifting – largely carried out

by a relatively small number of repeat

offenders. Then a year or so ago,

exasperated, he installed something

called Facewatch. It’s a facial -

recognition system that watches

people coming into the store;

it has a database of “subjects of

interest” (SOIs), and if it recognises

one, it sends a discreet alert to

the store manager. “If someone

triggers the alert,” says Paul,

“they’re approached by a member

of management, and asked to leave,

and most of the time they duly do.”

Facial recognition is in the

news most weeks at the moment.

Recently, a novelty phone app,

FaceApp , which takes your photo

and age s it to show what you’ ll

look like in a few decades, caused

a public freakout when people

realised it was a Russian company

and decided it was using their faces

for surveillance. (It appears to have

Haider

Warraich

The cardiologist

on why we need

to take heart

disease seriously

The fi ve

Marine species

affected by

plastic pollution

The networker

John Naughton

on big tech,

globalisation

and the gig

economy

This

Week

Facial recognition is being used to combat crimes

the police no longer deal with, but it raises strong

concerns about civil liberties, writes Tom Chivers

Photograph by

Getty Images/

iStockphoto Continued overleaf

Who keeps an eye

on Big Brother?

Ideas, analysis,

gadgets and beyond

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