SGI launches facial recognition today

Today, SGI enters the world of Jason Bourne.

Okay, that might be overselling it just a tad, but the provincial insurer is taking a step into biometric authentication.

Last year, Veridos Canada was awarded the Province’s contract for driver licences and the company began producing them in April of this year. One of the features the company had available was facial recognition technology (FRT).

Everyone is familiar with the pop culture use of this kind of technology in films such as in the aforementioned spy series. A group in a control room frantically uses FRT to scan the faces in a crowded bus terminal or train station to pinpoint their fugitive.

In the real world, it is not nearly so advanced or accurate, and it brings up concerns of privacy and constitutional rights. Critics, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation note that even the FBI’s system “only guarantees accuracy 85 per cent of the time.”

The utility to law enforcement, however, often involves identification of unknown persons from captured images “in the wild” so to speak. Static applications that use a reference photo to compare with known identities work significantly better. Facebook claims, for example, its algorithm is 97.5 per cent accurate.

Some Canadian police services, such as Calgary are currently experimenting with the technology as well, which, of course, is fraught with potential for abuse.

SGI’s implementation will be much more benign.

Starting today, when a new driver gets a licence or an existing driver renews, the system will create a numerical template of their likeness by establishing landmarks on the face such as distance between the eyes, size and shape of features and other measurements.

The system then compares that template with the person’s old photo (if it exists) to verify the person’s identity. It also compares the photos to all other photos in the database to confirm the face is not associated with another customer.

SGI was unable to provide an accuracy measure for the Veridos product, but Kelly Brinkworth, the Crown corp’s media relations manager, said the technology has made huge strides in the past decade and the new photo capture technology they are now using ensures the highest level of accuracy.

Even so, they have a second level of verification to ward against false positives, she explained. In the case of a positive match with another photo in the database other than a person’s own previous photos, a facial recognition analyst will physically look at the photos to confirm the match. This is new position created when the Veridos contract was signed. Studies have shown human accuracy is also only roughly 97.5 per cent. Brinkworth said they would have to deal with the possibility of a double failure if and when it should occur.

On the privacy side, she assures customers the protection of their data is of utmost concern to SGI. She said the database exists on a secure system and the corporation will not share the information with anybody unless compelled by a warrant or subpoena.

Andrew Cartmell, SGI president and CEO, explained the decision was taken to protect customers and the integrity of the photo ID system.

“Facial recognition protects Saskatchewan residents from identity theft and it also prevents people from getting multiple licences or ID cards,” he said. “This enhances road safety for everyone because it means someone with a suspended or revoked driver’s licence isn’t able to continue driving by getting a new licence under a different name.”

Drivers will not even know the transition has taken place for the most part.

Quebec is the only other province currently using this technology.