Safety over privacy? RealNetworks to offer free facial recognition technology to K-12 schools
RealNetworks, the Seattle company best known for pioneering streaming media in the early days of the web, is deploying a surprising new product today. The company says it will offer a new facial recognition technology, called SAFR, for free to K-12 schools to help upgrade their on-site security systems.
SAFR can be used with the same cameras that traditional surveillance systems to recognize students, staff, and people visiting schools. RealNetworks says that in addition to security, the tool can also help with record-keeping and “campus monitoring.” The technology is compatible with Mac, iOS, Android and Windows.
“SAFR from RealNetworks is highly accurate facial recognition software powered by artificial intelligence,” the company explains on the SAFR site. “It works with existing IP cameras and readily available hardware to match faces in real-time. Schools can stay focused and better analyze potential threats such as expelled students, and those who pose a threat from within and outside the school.”
The offer follows a series of fatal shootings at U.S. schools, but also comes amid a groundswell of concern about the ethical and privacy implications of AI-powered facial recognition technology.
RealNetworks says the system includes privacy protections and doesn’t seek to identify people by race.
To use SAFR, schools will keep a database with photographs of people authorized to be on campus. If the system doesn’t recognize a face, it notifies a member of the staff. The facial data and images SAFR collects are encrypted as a privacy protection and remain in the school’s possession. The technology is designed to work even in rural schools with limited internet connectivity.
Schools in the U.S. and Canada can download and use SAFR for free starting Wednesday. One Seattle elementary school has already implemented SAFR as part of a pilot program: University Child Development School is using the technology to identify authorized staff and parents and automatically grant them entry.
RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser is the reason that particular elementary school came to pilot the software. His three children are students. When RealNetworks began developing facial recognition technology, Glaser asked the school about its security measures at the front gate. He found out that they used a security camera monitored by a person and asked if the school would like to test out software to do the job automatically.
The school agreed, and the pilot went smoothly, Glaser said in an interview with GeekWire.
“A lot of the trials were very successful but this one was particularly remarkable for two reasons,” Glaser said. “One, the community loved it and embraced it and it was everything we would’ve wanted in terms of a happy customer, a vibrant community embracing it. That all felt right. Then after about two or three months into the trial, the horrible tragedy of Parkland happened … and the whole question of school Continue reading: Safety over privacy? RealNetworks to offer free facial recognition technology to K-12 schools – GeekWire
Big Education Ape: Chinese school's facial recognition scans students every 30 seconds - Business Insider - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2018/07/chinese-schools-facial-recognition.html
Parent Coalition for Student Privacy -https://www.studentprivacymatters.org/
