San Francisco made headlines in May for its decision to ban local law enforcement from using facial recognition software, but other major cities, reportedly including Chicago law enforcement, continue to use the technology. Meanwhile, The New York Times reported earlier this month that the New York Police Department used facial recognition to detect the faces of children. As cameras become increasingly omnipresent, some wonder what can be done to protect the public’s right to privacy.
Reflectacles, a Chicago-based company that makes anti-surveillance eyewear, wants to give citizens an option for bypassing facial recognition technology. After raising more than $41,000 in its 2017 Kickstarter campaign, the company is developing new designs and other products, said Reflectacles’ founder Scott Urban.
The company's new products are named IRpair and Phantom, which both block 3D infrared facial mapping during both day and night and block 2D video algorithm-based facial recognition on cameras with infrared for illumination. Per the products’ Kickstarter page, they’ll be delivered in April 2020.
The glasses are able to block facial recognition technology with their specialty lenses, which are made with optical filters that allow visible light to pass through, but block infrared radiation from getting in, the company says. The glasses turn your eye space black, keeping the tech from identifying you. The most recent Kickstarter raised almost $34,000, more than doubling its goal.
Urban noted that he’s been getting inquiries from customers internationally, because people are looking for ways to stay out of facial recognition databases, particularly during political protests.
“[It’s about] continuing the process of how to make the best way to block facial recognition but then also to make it seemingly normal as possible,” Urban said.
Beyond using facial recognition technology, similar tools have been used to harvest drivers licenses, said Rajiv Shah, data scientist at DataRobot and adjunct assistant professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago. In the future, it could be possible for local law enforcement agencies to combine databases and monitor citizens in real-time, Shah said.
Meanwhile, tech companies like Google and Apple are coming up with smart glasses, enabling tech firms to apply their tools directly in customers’ faces, Shah noted. Reflectacles can function as an antidote to government surveillance and big tech’s increasingly personal technological innovations, he said.
“You’re largely buying Reflectacles not for the purpose of committing crime or you don’t want the government to be seeing you. It’s kind of a political speech,” Shah said. “You want to stand up and point the people around you that, ‘Hey, this is something we all need to think about.’"
