- Experts in facial recognition warn that this technology will be normalized during the pandemic since both tenants and owners want quick access methods to offices to avoid being exposed to the virus.
- The technology has been seen as a potential privacy threat, but these experts say it can be deployed responsibly in offices and workstations.
- Firms like Clearview AI have worried many after collecting images from the internet to create a database of millions of faces without anyone’s consent.
Facial recognition has been used discreetly in drug stores and grocery stores, and by at least one of New York’s large tenants.
The backlash has been fierce, raising difficult-to-answer questions about how face tracking and cataloging promotes surveillance methods and invades privacy.
But experts with knowledge of the subject assure that the stigma suffered by this technology could be reduced during the coronavirus crisis, as facial recognition can play a key role in access to offices now that confinement is lifted in several areas of USA.
“I believe that now more than ever we will be able to use facial recognition in a responsible way to access sites,” says Shaun Moore, CEO of Trueface, a company that develops programs that read faces.
“People assume that this is a form of surveillance, but I think many forget that using a mobile phone or a credit card is the same. In fact, more data is collected with these other two technologies.”
The access system to large offices has been the same for decades: tenants pass their cards in lathes to open locked doors, while guests must give their details to a security guard.
But there is already a movement to update these systems.
“We have done a study on commercial buildings of more than 14,000 square meters and we have found that only 5% have compatibility with mobile apps, ” says Aaron Lapsley, Head of Digital Buildings at Cushman & Wakefield real estate. “But this number is growing fast.”
Implementing seamless access has grown from a signature anecdote to a sanitary imperative as landlords seek to create safe environments with minimized physical contact, to avoid exposing tenants to germs or viruses.
Although some mobile apps allow workers and guests to walk through a building and even call an elevator without having to press any button beyond their phone, experts abound that the trend could lead to the implementation of more facial recognition to create environments more fluid.
“If you want to enter a space using your mobile in your pocket, you have to have the app on constantly so that it communicates all the time with the building’s security systems,” Lapsley details.
Privacy concerns also prevail in this regard for mobile tracking. Some companies have taken advantage of these apps to record the location and behavior of customers and sell all this data for products to launch targeted advertising campaigns.
“We believe that there is a future for facial recognition in buildings,” says James Segil, president and co-founder of Openpath, a company that manufactures equipment and systems to control access. “It will take time,” he acknowledges.
Segil believes that the process of viewing tenants will be normalized thanks to the use of thermal scanners, which are being deployed by proprietary firms that want to check whether employees or guests have a fever.
“It won’t be difficult to add facial recognition at some point.”
The privacy concerns of facial recognition
Some of the most recent concerns about the use of facial recognition is the controversy of Clearview AI, the company that has developed an algorithm thanks to the collection of millions of faces of photos published on the internet. The company creates apps and cameras that use the database of those faces to identify anyone, without their knowledge or consent.
A March report from Buzzfeed revealed that Rudin Management, a New York real estate company, used Clearview AI as a surveillance system on its properties. The firm assured Buzzfeed that they had stopped using its technology.
Experts in facial recognition say that the methods they use to control access to offices are very different. Tenants and landlords control the databases with their faces, participation is voluntary, and individuals who do not want to continue giving out their biometric data have the right to have it removed from the databases.
“Privacy is a legitimate concern if things are not done well, ” acknowledges Moore. “We spend a lot of time educating clients on how to do things.”
Moore says that interest in this technology continues to grow. Trueface, he says, is on track to double its revenue this year. He assures that the firm has raised about 5 million euros from investors and still does not give details of its benefits.
Openpath, which uses Trueface software, has raised about € 60 million in investment rounds in the last 4 years, says its founder, Segil. It ensures that its access control products are already operating in more than 2,000 buildings.
“We have had a lot of pull in a very short time,” he considers. “And we have bigger and deeper plans.”
Even so, many owners remain reluctant to deploy these technologies.
“Based on my conversations with tenants, many find the concept of facial recognition somewhat intimidating and are opposed to the idea,” sums up Craig Deitelzweig, CEO of Marx Realty, which has a portfolio of more than 400,000 square meters of commercial space.
This impression could change rapidly as tenants return to the offices, Lapsley understands. He speaks in a country, the United States, where the lockdown has not been completely lifted and many employees have not yet returned to the office: they continue to work from home.
“It’s hard to say when this will grow”; Lapsley acknowledges. “We are in August and decisions about when to return to the office have been delayed. Occupancy levels are below 10% in many cities. It is not clear when it will be invested in improving access systems. But we know it will be important in large commercial buildings and we expect it to happen as soon as users return to the spaces. “