Surveillance cameras at train stations and in public places have long become a well-established part of everyday life. Facial recognition software, however, is not. In Germany, that could soon change.
Image: picture-alliance/imageBROKER/J. Tack
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"The system has proved itself so well that its broad implementation is now possible," a thrilled Horst Seehofer announced last October. "Results have shown that facial recognition technology can be of great assistance to our police officers."
Before the project began, images of their faces were entered into a special police database — mimicking the way police deal with real-world suspects.
Those images were constantly updated with video recordings from cameras installed in every corner of the space. Software developed for the experiment alerted officials every time a volunteer was picked up on camera.
According to the Interior Ministry, the system averaged 80% accuracy, meaning only one in five people went unnoticed. The ministry also claimed that averages for false positives were significantly lower, pointing out that the software only falsely identified one in 1,000 people as a person of interest. It's low, but in the real world that error rate could still have grave consequences for an innocent person mistakenly arrested by police.
Legal complications
Despite such risks, Dieter Romann, the head of Germany's federal police force, has praised the possibilities presented by facial recognition software. He said it makes it easier to recognize and apprehend criminals without the need for special police operations, "a major victory for security." But Romann and Seehofer will have to be patient: Germany currently lacks a clear legal framework for the implementation of advanced video surveillance technology.
On Wednesday, proponents of the new technology came one step closer to realizing their plan when an administrative court in Hamburg declared that an order to delete a controversial database containing images of the 2017 G20 summit protests in the city had been illegal. Local police were using Videmo 360 facial recognition software to identify people who took part in violent acts during the event.
Facial recognition at a Berlin railway station
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The images were largely gleaned from video surveillance cameras in the city; some stationary, others mobile. But police also have access to private photos and videos taken during the demonstrations. All of the material is currently stored on hard drives at the Hamburg police department.
Johannes Caspar, the city-state's commissioner for data protection, has argued there is no legal justification for collecting and storing the biometric data of the crowds of innocent citizens "in order to compare them to suspects one day."
Surveillance tech in every train station
Caspar is now considering whether to appeal the court's decision. Meanwhile, a second pilot project was launched in June at the Südkreuz station, details of which were recently submitted to parliament in response to a request by the far-right Alternative for Germany party.
Federal police claim the new facial recognition technology will provide a "more effective defense" against typical threats, which they have been simulating at the station. Scenarios in which the technology has proven useful, according to police, include standard situations like unaccompanied bags, or the appearance of "streams or clusters of people."
German train stations are often the scene of dangerous or, at times, deadly incidents. In July, an 8-year-old boy was killed after he was pushed onto the tracks by a man at Frankfurt central train station. Seehofer aims to install video surveillance technology in almost all of Germany's major train stations by 2024, and says facial recognition software will be an important part" of this campaign.
From the fingerprint to biometric data
125 years ago an Argentinian criminologist systematically took fingerprints of prisoners. Today there is a wealth of biometric information which police officers can collect: DNA, sounds, pictures and data.
Image: arfo - Fotolia.com
A standard in modern forensics for 125 years
In 1891, a Croatian born, Argentine criminologist, Juan Vucetich, started building up the first modern-style fingerprint archive. Since then, fingerprints have become one of the main forms of evidence used to convict criminals. Here, a police officer spreads dust on the lock of a burglarized apartment. Fingerprints become visible.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Archiving and comparing prints
He uses an adhesive film to capture the fingerprint. Then he glues it to a piece of paper. In the past, comparing fingerprints was a painstaking affair. Officers had to compare fingerprints found at the scene of a crime, one-by-one, with those of possible suspects. These days computers do the job.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
No more ink
Taking fingerprints used to be a messy affair - with ink and dirty hands. These days scanners have replaced the inky mess. And the data can immediately be sent to a database and turned into biometrical data.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/P. Endig
Fingerprints form an identity
The computer identifies typical spots within the ridge patterns of the fingerprint. These include forks in the lines, spots and the location of the center of the print. Fingerprints are never the same between two people - not even with identical twins.
Image: itestro/Fotolia.com
Vote early and vote often!
No chance! Here, officials use fingerprint scanners during an election in Nigeria. It's how they make sure the people voting are registered voters and that they only vote once.
Image: APC Presidential Campaign Organisation
Who entered Europe where?
This is an important question for officials who have to decide about the refugee or asylum status of applicants. In the European Union all migrants are supposed to have their fingerprints taken at the first point of entry - provided, of course, the local police officers are equipped with the scanners.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Weigel
Hands off! It's my data!
Many smartphones now come with fingerprint recognition software, such as the iPhone's Touch-ID. The owner of the phone unlocks it with his fingerprint. If someone else finds or steals the phone, they have no way of getting at any encrypted data within.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa Themendienst
Secure ATM banking
This is an Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) in the Scottish town of Dundee. Customers wanting to withdraw money need to show biometric proof of identity - in the form of a fingerprint. Not good news for pickpockets.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Fingerprint inside the passport
Since 2005, German passports, and many other passports, contain a digital fingerprint as part of the biometric information stored on a RFID (radio-frequency controlled ID) chip. Other information on the chip includes a biometric passport photo. The facial image is similar to fingerprints: no two images are alike.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Grimm
When computers recognize faces
Facial recognition software, which uses biometrics, is well advanced. It is possible to identify suspects within large crowds, with surveillance cameras. Also internet services and private computer owners are increasingly making use of facial recognition software to sort holiday pictures and tagging them to names.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
The inventor of the genetic fingerprint
Alec Jeffreys discovered DNA-fingerprinting almost accidentally in 1984 during research at the University of Leicester. He identified a specific pattern on DNA segments, which were different for every human. He created a picture, which looks like a barcode at the supermarket.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
A barcode for every human
Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) started storing such barcodes in a federal database in 1998. Investigators have since solved more than 18,000 crimes, using genetic fingerprints.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Clearing the innocent
It's not just criminals who get identified. Many innocent people can be cleared of criminal charges through good identification. For some, technology has saved their lives. Kirk Bloodsworth spent almost nine years on death row. The US Innocence Project has proved the false incarceration of more than 100 people using DNA evidence.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Clarity for victims' families
The first big test for DNA-fingerprinting came with the mass murder of Srebrenica. Bodies, exhumed from mass graves, were systematically identified using DNA techniques. They were then reburied by their loved ones. Here, five year old Ema Hasanovic pays last respects to her uncle. More than 6,000 victims of the massacre - mostly men - were identified using DNA-fingerprinting.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/A. Emric
Biometric data on your phone and computer
You may be surprised, but there's biometric information in sounds and other digital data. Voice recognition software can, for instance, identify people making threatening phone calls - the human voice is also unique. And don't forget: we leave all kinds of digital traces on the internet, which hold clues to who we really are.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Warmuth (
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Privacy proponents fight back
But Seehofer will need the backing of the entire government before he can move forward — and it remains unclear whether he will get it. Commenting on the conclusions of the first Südkreuz pilot project, Seehofer said opinions "have not yet been entirely formed." Unlike members of Seehofer's conservative Christian Social Union and its sister party, Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, some members of the governing coalition's center-left Social Democrats are skeptical.
Others have also voiced their concern over the increased use of facial recognition technology. In July, the nongovernmental organization Society for Civil Rights (GFF) submitted a constitutional complaint against automatic passport photo searches by police and intelligence services.
Until 2017, German law only allowed such searches to be conducted in criminal cases, but an amendment now allows searches even in instances when authorities have no basis for suspicion. Bijan Moini, a lawyer representing GFF, now fears that a "national database of biometric features is being compiled."
