Microsoft removes massive facial recognition database

Copyright of the image
Police of South Wales

According to the Financial Times, Microsoft has removed a mbadive database containing 10 million images, used to form facial recognition systems.

The database was published in 2016 and was built from the online images of 100,000 well-known people.

The database would have been used to form a system operated by the police and the army.

The removal comes after Microsoft has called on American politicians to better regulate recognition systems.

Active use

Microsoft told the FT that the database was no longer available because the person in charge had now left the company.

Last year, Microsoft President Brad Smith had asked the US Congress to regulate the use of facial recognition systems because they had "extensive societal ramifications and potential for abuse" .

More recently, Microsoft rejected a request from the California police to use its face-tracking systems in cameras and cars.

The mbadive set of images, called MSCeleb database, was compiled from celebrity images found online.

The Megapixels project, which tracks the databases of faces, said the "majority" of images were made up of American and British actors, but also included many people who "need to maintain an online presence in their professional life ".

This meant that it included journalists, artists, musicians, activists, policymakers, writers and researchers.

Even though the data is no longer available from Microsoft, it is probably still used by people who have downloaded a copy.

"You can not make a set of data disappear," Engadget Adam Harvey of the Megapixels website said. "Once you post the message and people download it, it exists on hard drives around the world."

In the United Kingdom, police forces have been criticized for trying locally developed facial recognition systems, which have proven to be bad at recognizing people. One trial was incorrect in 92% of reported cases.

Big Brother Watch said that the way facial recognition was "introduced" into the streets of the UK was "dangerously irresponsible".