Ways to protect against face recognition technologies
Cybersecurity consultant Joseph Steinberg has published an article in which he gave some tips on how to protect yourself from pervasive facial recognition technologies.
1. Properly style your hair and apply makeup
The idea is to have hair or makeup cover / distort areas of your face such as eyes, nose and forehead, as well as the area at their intersection. Most recognition systems in this way will not be able to understand at all that there is a face in front of them and will not even try to recognize it.
Any light source illuminates the nose, eyebrows and cheekbones more than the eye sockets. The former are clearly visible, and the latter are shaded by the upper part of the face. Thus, if the makeup "lightens the eye sockets" and darkens the nose, eyebrows and cheekbones, it can confuse facial recognition systems. Unfortunately, conventional makeup approaches assume the exact opposite.
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It is also recommended to mask any scars, moles, tattoos, or other identifiable signs.
Since most human faces are never perfectly symmetrical, face recognition systems take advantage of this by measuring asymmetry in various ways. This can confuse them by adding atypical deviations from symmetry. For example, you can have a noticeable contrasting pattern on just one side of your face, or two different patterns on each side. Likewise, asymmetrical styling or a contrasting colored strand covering part of the face can help.
Not all of the above approaches are applicable in everyday life, but the more there are, the higher the chances of deceiving recognition systems. Well, in any case, you definitely should not wear makeup that emphasizes the characteristic features of the face.
2. Hide your nose, eyes, forehead and especially the area of their intersection as much as possible from the cameras
In many face recognition algorithms, the main emphasis is precisely on the mentioned intersection area, so the more carefully it is hidden, the better. Long bangs are perfect for this purpose.
A specially selected wig can also help out. After all, you can at least put on a hood.
3. Hide lip shape from cameras
It is also important for facial recognition systems to analyze lips, so those wearing a mustache and beard can grow them back. In this case, first of all, one must strive to close the upper part of the upper lip.
If possible, change the shape of the lips by applying the same color to the skin around them, or vice versa - paint over part of the lips with tonal powder, as if it were not lips, but just facial skin.
4. Put on a brimmed hat and lower your head
Baseball caps are ideal because they both hide the shape of the head and also hide the face from cameras located high on the walls or ceiling.
Wide brimmed hats and a downward tilt of the head can work great too. If the ears are not covered with hair, then a hat will help.
5. Hide one or both eyes
Recognition systems evaluate many aspects of the eyes - shape, position, size, color, distance between them, etc. Ideally, you need to hide your eyes completely, but even one hidden eye may be enough - the system, in principle, may not recognize your face as a face.
A good option would be to use special glasses that reflect infrared light. Such glasses can completely hide your eyes from cameras and even create “glare” that prevents recognition systems from clearly seeing the areas immediately surrounding your eyes.
6. Use infrared LEDs
Battery-powered infrared LEDs attached to sunglasses or hidden in a hat can confuse facial recognition systems that rely on infrared light; such systems may not even be aware that they are facing a human face. At the same time, infrared light will be invisible to you and the people around you.
7. Masking overlays for the face
Artificial leather is often used by magicians in those tricks where you need to hide something that is right in front of the audience's eyes.
While the classic fake thumbnail won't confuse facial recognition systems, faux leather facial overlays - especially if applied asymmetrically or in the key areas mentioned above - can certainly cause recognition problems. Specialty stores often offer a wide variety of such products.
8. Use clothes wisely
Wear clothes that hide your face. In addition to using hoods, as described above, and if the weather permits, you can wear a scarf and wear it so as to hide the lower part of the face from the cameras.
Other accessories and embellishments can help too: some systems can confuse clothing with realistic face photos or, for example, with large, bright images.
9. Grow a beard
It is believed that the "lumberjack beard" is in vogue today. Beards by themselves usually don't interfere with facial recognition systems, but they can improve your chances when combined with other methods.
10. Wear a mask
If circumstances and environment permit, then a mask will be one of the most effective ways to hide your face. In cold winter and on the street, it is quite possible to try to walk in a balaclava without attracting too much attention to yourself.
There are special masks designed to block facial recognition systems, but they will definitely attract the attention of others.
3D masks with other people's faces or fake faces work great, but they need to be too high quality and comfortable to be worn freely without causing questions or inconvenience.
11. Modify your photos before sharing them online
There are applications that add "noise" imperceptible to the human eye to photographs, making faces in them more difficult for automatic recognition algorithms.
12. Combine
Of course, you can apply the above methods together and separately, alternating them so that the recordings from different cameras cannot be compared with each other and thereby collect additional information about you, even if you may not be able to uniquely recognize your face.