Mall of America has Added New Facial Recognition Technology

The Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota has announced that they are adding new facial recognition technology to the mall. I know facial recognition has been a thing for a while, but I never have thought about the possibility of facial recognition being utilized while I'm out shopping at the mall.

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Did you ever see the show 'Person of Interest'? This makes me think of that show.

It makes me think that someone's sitting in a room filled with monitors watching everyone shopping at the mall and scanning our faces.

And honestly, that's basically what's happening at MOA.

Facial Recognition Technology at Mall of America

These cameras are an added layer of security and are, in fact, scanning our faces while we're shopping. But, as Will Benhjelm, vice president of security at Mall of America, said to WCCO, it's "'not scanning faces to go find out who you are.'"

The cameras are to find persons of interest. They were installed because of the increase in gun-related incidents over the past few years in order to keep shoppers safe.

How this Technology Works

What the technology does is it's given information about the appearance of persons of interest. WCCO writes that those are people "who may be a threat, persons identified by law enforcement or those who are missing or may be in danger."

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If the computer picks up someone that could be a match, steps are taken by security to determine if this person is truly someone they're looking for and then proceed from there.

The Department of Homeland Security tested the cameras and reported that "the software's algorithm correctly identified individuals 99.3% of the time." That's impressive!

Is it still awfully weird that there are cameras scanning your face? Totally. But I understand the need for it and I also get that it's in our best interest for our safety.