Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2001 01:57:36 -0400 To: Matthew Gaylor <freematt@coil.com> From: Matthew Gaylor <freematt@coil.com> Subject: Visionics Corporation Calls for Federal Legislation to Safeguard Against Misuse of Face Recognition Technology Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" ; format="flowed" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by aztec.asu.edu id XAA11636Visionics Corporation Calls for Federal Legislation to Safeguard Against Misuse of Face Recognition Technology
Cites Specific Measures to Uphold Privacy Rights
http://www.faceit.com/newsroom/press/PRs/2001/0725a.html
MIAMI--July 25, 2001--In response to the recently voiced concerns on the use of facial recognition technology to combat crime in public areas, Visionics Corporation (Nasdaq:VSNX), the worldwide leader in identification technologies and systems, issued its privacy protection principles today in Miami, FL at the annual meeting of the International Association for Identification, and announced that it intends to promote federal legislation to prevent any opportunities for misuse.
Dr. Joseph J. Atick president and CEO of Visionics commented, "In keeping with our belief that our leadership must extend beyond technology, Visionics has always taken an active role in articulating the most appropriate and ethical ways for society to gain benefits from our technology and to ensure that the technology cannot be misused. Thus far, we have formulated responsible use guidelines, secured their acceptance by those adopting the technology, been vigilant in ensuring compliance and, where possible, we have built technical measures to maintain control over the installations. These measures have been effective, but without systematic oversight and enforcement, they may not be enough to prevent misuse in the long run. Consequently, Visionics is calling for federal legislation in the United States to help transform these responsible use guidelines into responsible public policy."
"In the months to come, the Company will work closely with federal legislators, privacy interest and industry groups to share its knowledge, experience and privacy protection principles pertaining to surveillance and other applications of face recognition technology. The Company will continue to promote an improved public understanding of the creation, use and control of facial recognition systems and will support public policy that ensures that deployments of facial recognition are conducted in a way that upholds all privacy rights," he concluded.
These principles provide the basis for the proposed legislation and include the following:
*Establishment of public communication mechanisms, i.e., signage, media alerts
*Guidelines for database protocols such as - need, justification for inclusion and removal, valid duration of information, dissemination, review, disclosure and sharing
*No match-no memory, i.e., ensuring that no images are kept by the system unless matched as a criminal
*Technical measures for database size and integrity as well as authorized operation and access
*Recourse and penalty for violations of the principles.
While still an emerging technology, facial recognition has already been validated in a variety of high-profile applications. The longest and most established deployment of this technology in combating crime in public areas is in the Newham Borough of London. Newham had installed the FaceIt® system in the fall of 1998 and in the first year of operation, crime had been reduced by 40% overall. As a further demonstration of its crime reduction effects, two weeks ago, the Home Office announced a youth crime initiative in Newham that uses facial recognition and a potential expansion of the system to other areas in the U.K.
The Company's privacy protection principles are available for download on the web at http://www.visionics.com/newsroom/biometrics/privacy.html
About Visionics Corporation Visionics Corporation (Nasdaq:VSNX - news) is the worldwide leader in identification technologies and systems. Through its respective business lines - FaceIt®, live scan, IBIS and BNP - the company delivers enabling technology, platforms, products and systems for biometric identification, with a specific focus on face recognition and forensic quality fingerprint identification. The award-winning FaceIt® technology enables a broad range of products and applications built by partners (OEMs, VARs and system integrators). These include enhanced CCTV systems, identity fraud applications and authentication systems for information security, access control, travel, banking and e-commerce. The TENPRINTER and FingerPrinter CMS live scan systems are the most widely used by government agencies, law enforcement, airports, banks and other commercial institutions in the US. The IBIS is a revolutionary mobile identification system that combines expertise in biometric capture and connectivity, and is capable of capturing both forensic quality fingerprints and photographs for transmission to law enforcement and other legacy databases. Finally, the BNP is a revolutionary platform for building scalable biometric solutions. These lines of business as a whole are reflective of Visionics' leadership position in the biometric industry and commitment to the innovation of identification technologies.
More information on Visionics can be accessed via the Company web site at http://www.visionics.com or by calling Frances Zelazny, Director of Corporate Communications at +1 201-332-9213.
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CONTACT: Bob Gallagher, Chief Financial Officer, 952-932-0888 Frances Zelazny, Director of Corporate Communications, 201-332-9213 This news release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected on the basis of such forward-looking statements.
Such forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management pursuant to the "safe-harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
For a more complete description of these and other risk factors which may affect the future performance of Visionics Corporation, see "Risk Factors" in Digital Biometrics' Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended September 30, 2000 and its quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the period ended December 31, 2000, Form 8-K dated February 15, 2001 and the related Form 8-K/A, all of which have been filed with the SEC.
© 2001 Visionics Corp.
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