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Australian gvt tries to make face recognition look good [priv]
From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Date: Mon, 09 Feb 2004 00:46:12 -0500
---
Date: Sat, 7 Feb 2004 16:11:20 +1100
From: Roger Clarke <Roger.Clarke () xamax com au>
Subject: Face-Recognition Technology - FOR DISTRIBUTION
PLEASE DISTRIBUTE TO ALL RELEVANT LISTS
AUSTRALIAN GOVT TRIES TO MAKE FACE-RECOGNITION LOOK GOOD
________________________________________________________________________
Applications of face-recognition technology have been uniformly
unsuccessful. Technology providers and security agencies are desperate for
some good news.
It's very likely that a project called SmartGate, conducted by the Australian Customs Service, will be trumpeted throughout the world as the good news that face-recognition technology has been waiting for.
This email contains an assessment of the extreme manipulation of data, truth and the media on which such 'good news' stories will be based.
________________________________________________________________________ BackgroundSmartGate is the Australian Customs Service's pilot face-recognition system, using German Cognitec technology. It has been trialled for a year on QANTAS aircrew. The stated intention of the Australian Government is to extend it further. This project is running in parallel with a Passports Office project to change Australian passports to conform with U.S. demands.
Customs have been trying to convince suppliers to finance the development of the scheme. It does not appear that any independent testing has been performed; but a couple of international experts were invited to review the internal test results. A media event was held on Friday 6 Feb 04. The information made available to the public is listed below.
________________________________________________________________________ Analysis of the Available InformationThe brazenness of Custom's manipulation of media and public opinion exceeds the standards normally expected of the Government.
(1) No data has been provided, despite assurances given in the past that data *would* be provided.
(2) The invited experts who were paraded by Customs are arguably about the world's two foremost designers of testing for biometric technologies.
But is appears that:
(a) they did not *perform* the tests
(b) they did not *design* the tests
All that they were permitted to do was explained as follows:
- they "reported on three reports"
(only one of which was a technical test)
- they "conducted independent obervations" (i.e. watched it in operation)
- they "reviewed SmartGate data logs [and other, derivative documents]"
(which are meaningless without additional information, and analysis)
(3) The only report that matters was undertaken by the Defence Science and
Technology Organisation (DSTO). There are some serious problems here:
(a) no information whatsoever has been provided about that study, i.e. the public is expected to accept at face-value the assertions made about the methods used, the controls applied, and the outcomes; (b) DSTO is not in any sense independent. It is a government agency. Its assurances need to be regarded with the same degree of scepticism as any other arm of a government that has demonstrated itself to regard national security as paramount and what it releases to the public as a means to an end.
(4) The best quotation that Customs seem to have been able to extract from the two experts was that "the scheme's performance is remarkably good for an operational facial recognition system".
That seems quite positive, until you realise that the other attempts around the world have been abject failures, and pilot after pilot has been quietly abandoned.
In other words, the quotation can be readily interpreted as "it doesn't work very well, but it's better than the other disasters we've seen".
This is borne out by an answer by one of the experts to a reporter's question. He said: "In one test 100 company employees attempted to impersonate someone other than themselves and eight of them were falsely accepted by the system. That is a very low rate of false accepts". At that"very low" level of false acceptances, every 747-load of people can include 25-30 terrorists; and some (undeclared) number of people will miss the plane because they were false rejections, and they're still waiting in the queue for interrogation.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _The Minister had promised that the announcements about the tests would vindicate his claims that the scheme works.
This media event has done two things.It has confirmed that the Government intends to continue constructively misinforming the public about Smartgate and about biometrics technologies.
And it has, in the process, tarnished the reputations of the two scientists. ________________________________________________________________________ The Available Information(I wasn't invited to the media event, and haven't been provided with any information by Customs. That's fair enough: I'm not a member of the media. But on the other hand I've been much-quoted in the media; and Customs have previously sought meetings with me, and adopted the pretence of wanting to keep me informed).
The media release is at: http://www.customs.gov.au/site/index.cfm?area_id=5&content_id=14859 This points to two marketing brochures (1 x 1-page and 1 x 2-page) at: http://www.customs.gov.au/resources/Files/media%20background%20smartgate.pdf http://www.customs.gov.au/resources/Files/media%20background%20smartgate%20information.pdf No further information was provided. The unlinkable page reached via: - 'protecting our borders' / 'border technologies' / 'SmartGate'has had all previous documents withdrawn from it, and the only links available are the two marketing brochures pointed to above.
None of the other 17 hits arising from a search on 'SmartGate' on Customs' web-site appear to be new.
________________________________________________________________________ Additional background information is at: http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/DV/SmartGate.html including: - links to the Customs site http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/DV/SmartGate.html#SmartSrces - links to media reports http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/DV/SmartGate.html#MediaSceptical reports about face-recognition technology, including the authoritative ACLU materials and EPIC's resource-page, are indexed at:
http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/DV/BiomBibl.html#RSFR ________________________________________________________________________ -- Roger Clarke http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/ Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, 78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916 mailto:Roger.Clarke () xamax com au http://www.xamax.com.au/ Visiting Professor in the eCommerce Program, University of Hong Kong Visiting Professor in the Baker Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre, U.N.S.W Visiting Fellow in Computer Science, Australian National University _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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- Australian gvt tries to make face recognition look good [priv] Declan McCullagh (Feb 08)