Facial recognition is booming, with the market expected to grow from $1.92 billion to $6.5 billion in 2018 - and the technology is invading markets such as dating, with Match.com integrating a service which finds users dates based on their exes, as Popular Science reports this week.
Even pets are not exempt, with a service, PetMatch, attempting to find pets for users based on the appearance of their previous pets.
The widespread use of such technology is increasingly raising privacy concerns, according to Biometrics Update.
This week, the Biometrics Institute submitted documents outlining some of the privacy concerns around the use of biometrics to the British government.
"One of the major threats to privacy we see is the potential of re-purposing and function-creep and, especially, data linkage, both by governments and private companies," said Isabelle Moeller, the CEO of the Biometrics Institute. "Robust data handling procedures and education are needed."
Facial recognition: Threat to privacy
The dating service unveiled by Match.com this year uses an algorithm to find close ‘matches’ to previous exes after users upload a selection of pictures, the Washington Post reports.
It’s part of a premium service created in conjunction with dating service Three Day Rule, and is available as part of a $5,000 subscription.
The biometric service is used alongside human-curated choice: the algorithm is used to thin out potential dates own to 100 choices, then human experts make the final choices based on their knowledge of the subject.
She looks just like you
Popular Science reports that the service examines facial structure and "eye and nose coordinates".
The site comments, "The company says its goal is more efficient matchmaking, not to help customers find people that look like their exes—but we can’t help thinking of Lyle Lovett’s classic lyric: 'I married her just because she looks like you.'"
