Facial recognition at schools fuels privacy debate

SEATTLE  — Facial recognition technology is being used to increase security at one Seattle school, but the technology is fueling debate about privacy concerns.

The Seattle Times reports that the company RealNetworks began offering the technology free to K-12 schools this summer to improve school security.

It’s in use at the private elementary University Child Development School.

Mike Vance, a senior director of product management at the Seattle company, leads the team that created Secure, Accurate Facial Recognition — or SAFR, pronounced “safer.”

It took three years, 8 million faces and more than 8 billion data points to develop the technology, which can identify a face with near perfect accuracy. The short-term goal, RealNetworks executives say, is increased school safety.

Some critics, however, aren’t so sure such systems in schools will be effective enough to outweigh the privacy costs.

“There’s a general habituation of people to be tolerant of this kind of tracking of their face,” said Adam Schwartz, a lawyer with digital privacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation. “This is especially troubling when it comes to schoolchildren. It’s getting them used to it.”