Public officials and journalists will soon be able to keep track of AI-generated deepfakes of themselves on YouTube through the platform's likeness detection feature. The tool is already available to millions of content creators on YouTube, but beginning Tuesday, it will expand to a pilot group of journalists, government officials, and political candidates.
When presence becomes participation Ring's Search Party feature queries nearby cameras when a missing pet is reported. As Senator Ed Markey observed, this closely resembles neighbourhood-scale surveillance infrastructure. Crucially, Search Party does not operate in isolation. Ring's Familiar Faces feature applies facial recognition to anyone passing within camera range, continuously scanning and categorising faces without their explicit knowledge or agreement.
OpenAI's first hardware release will be a smart speaker with a camera that will probably cost between $200 and $300, according to The Information. The device will be able to recognize things like "items on a nearby table or conversations people are having in the vicinity," The Information says, and it will have a Face ID-like facial recognition system so that people can purchase things. OpenAI acquired Jony Ive's hardware company last May in a deal worth nearly $6.5 billion.
A federal agent stops a car during a routine traffic stop amid the Trump administration's anti-immigrant crackdown. The driver rolls down the window, and before asking for any documents, the officer takes a picture of the person behind the wheel. Or perhaps, during an immigration raid, some neighbors try to prevent masked agents from entering a private residence without a warrant, and a confrontation ensues. The agents restrain a witness, and while the person is still struggling on the ground, they point a cell phone camera at them and take a picture.
With a warrant out for his arrest, Lutts hosted monthly trivia nights at a Toronto bar and provided relationship advice to clients as a self-styled psychic. His arrest in February 2025 by Toronto police's fugitive squad came after a Crime Stoppers-type service in Florida received an anonymous tip about his whereabouts in November 2023. The tip appears to have come from a U.S.-based internet sleuth who claims to have used facial recognition technology and social media clues to track Lutts to Toronto.
We have been in contact with Mr Rajah to sincerely apologise for his experience in our Elephant and Castle store. This was not an issue with the facial recognition technology in use but a case of the wrong person being approached in store.
The National Portrait Gallery is Jared Soares's favorite museum. It's just a few Metro stops away from the photographer's home in Northeast DC, and he says he's visited dozens of times to admire the works from his favorite artists. But Soares's next visit will be different. The second floor of the gallery now features Soares's award-winning photograph, Misidentified by Artificial Intelligence: Alonzo and Carronne (2023).
During a confrontation with ICE agents, two legal observers had their faces scanned by a federal officer to include in a vague database. "We have a nice little database, and now you're considered domestic terrorists," the ICE agent said at the time. It wasn't clear at the moment whether the agent was bluffing. But now, new details reported by CNN reveal that Alex Pretti, the ICU nurse murdered by ICE agents in Minneapolis was indeed closely tracked by a border agent system before his killing.
The United Kingdom's controversial rollout of facial recognition technology will rely on software that appears to have already been deployed in Gaza, where it is used by the Israeli army to track, trace, and abduct thousands of Palestinian civilians passing through checkpoints. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced on Monday that British police would massively increase the use of facial recognition technology used for surveillance purposes.
According to TechCrunch's previous coverage, the feature enables Ring users to recognize visitors' faces and locate lost pets by connecting with neighbors who also use Ring devices. Amazon also rolled out an Alexa+ feature that acts as a smart doorbell assistant, alerting users to a visitor before they open the door. As reported by TechCrunch, Amazon stated that the Familiar Faces feature allows you to create a catalog of up to 50 people by tagging them in the Ring app.
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Sir Mark Rowley said there was evidence of store employees tipping off thieves about when it was safe to strike, while other retailers refused to hand over CCTV footage or photos of criminals caught red-handed. He alleged some stores would not allow staff time off to attend court or provide statements to police. In the year to June, retail crime surged by 13 per cent, reaching 529,994 recorded offences, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Ministers are facing calls for stronger safeguards on facial recognition technology after the Home Office admitted that it is more likely to incorrectly identify black and Asian people than their white counterparts on some settings. Following the latest testing conducted by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) of the technology's application within the police national database, the Home Office said it was more likely to incorrectly include some demographic groups in its search results.
The Home Office has formally opened a consultation on the use of facial recognition by UK police, saying the government is committed to introducing a legal framework that sets out clear rules for the technology. Initially announced by policing minister Sarah Jones in early October 2025, the 10-week consultation will allow interested parties and members of the public to share their views on how the controversial technology should be regulated.
