At the request of the minister of justice and security of the Netherlands, Sander Dekker, the University of Tilburg did research and prepared a report on facial recognition and privacy risks. The report, for which 20face was asked to contribute, was published on the 20th of April 2020 and presented to the Dutch parliament.

About the report

The aim of this report was to investigate the implications of the rise of facial recognition, and the associated problems with privacy for citizens in particular. The report serves to support the minister of justice and security in making policy and provides him with recommendations.

Contribution by 20face

Since 20face serves as a thought leader in the world of facial recognition by offering ‘privacy-proof biometrics’, the company was asked to contribute to the research by Tilburg University. In the report, 20face shares its vision on privacy, comments on how it uses ‘privacy-by-design’ to ensure user acceptance and compliance with regulations, and confirms that it thinks privacy laws should be actively enforced.

In the report, 20face CTO Tauseef Ali is quoted multiple times:

“The way we position ourselves in the market is that we do not sell the technology separately. When other people build their solution using our technology, we don’t know what solution they are building, whether it is privacy or GDPR proof, and what they are building the solution for. It’s artificial intelligence, the technology can identify people. We cannot just sell that to everyone. It offers people opportunities, and if they use the technology in the right way that’s good, but we want to make sure that the parties who use it, use it properly.”

“We shouldn’t rely only on enforcement of legal frameworks for privacy. A better choice is to put it into the design, the architecture of the system. So the administration or people controlling the system, even they shouldn’t be able to do things that are not consistent with GDPR or privacy. Because the system is designed and automated in such a way that it does not allow people to tamper with the rules. So that’s what we are trying to do to put regulation in the architecture of the system.”

Based on 20face’s comments, among a lot of other findings, best practices and recommendations for regulation were presented to minister Sander Dekker of justice and security.

Looking forward

Although this report does not mean more strict regulations are to be expected immediately, it does provide evidence that governments are seriously working on enforcing privacy in the field of facial recognition. This means facial recognition companies and solution should closely monitor developments concerning privacy regulation. Whereas some companies might be anxious about such changes and must consider completely altering their products and services, at 20face we are glad that we are always thinking ahead. Making facial recognition privacy proof has become our core driver and is carefully build into our solution.

Full report

The full report can be downloaded here.
Please be aware the report is written in Dutch.