The end of privacy: Facial recognition technology debuts in public places

Technology giant NEC is marketing a new face identification application to businesses worldwide. According to the company, the software is "ideally suited to hospitality environments or businesses where there is a need to identify the presence of important visitors, whether expected or unannounced." In this application, the software monitors data from CCTV or surveillance cameras in real time, matching images against a database of individuals the business deems as important. Everyone on Facebook, for example. The face recognition software does a quick look up in the VIP database and where a match is found, alerts can be made to senior hospitality personnel so that the necessary action can be taken to greet or prepare for the arrival of the VIP. The actual matching process can take less than a second. Can integration with smartphones or wearable devices like Google Glass be far behind? Soon you will know who everyone you see is, without the pesky inconvenience of having to ask.