Technology company Meta is testing facial recognition software developed by Rank One, a firm that supplies surveillance tools to United States police and military entities, for use in its smart glasses. Rank One holds contracts with institutions including the US Marshals Service, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, and the US Special Operations Command. Licence documents show the agreement authorises Meta to use Rank One's face recognition technology and its liveness detection feature, which determines whether a camera sees a real person rather than a photo or mask. Code for a dormant facial recognition feature called NameTag inside the Meta AI app includes routines that load Rank One's licence and activate the software. A security researcher indicated the tool appeared nearly ready to launch, despite opposition from civil rights groups and US lawmakers.

Background: Surveillance and Smart Cities

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