KT edit: Making Dubai safer

Dubai’s decision to use facial recognition in public transport could make the country safer and bring more efficiency into the system

The ubiquity of technology has simplified lives, to say the least, and we have been relying on it much more for the sheer sake of convenience. Most of us didn’t think twice before giving our biometrics to private telecom companies in exchange for a new way to unlock phones or laptops. There has been little hesitancy on sharing facial contours with private telecom companies that belong to different parts of the world. We happily posed in front of our phone screens to register for facial recognition. People who have used this technology trust it and know it works well enough. So, building up on this trust and using it for greater public good is the next plausible step.

Dubai’s decision to use facial recognition in public transport could make the country safer and bring more efficiency into the system. By the admission of the Dubai Police, facial recognition will cut the time taken to identify a suspect from at least five hours to less than a minute. That’s the potential of this new age tech, which is so easy to use and requires no physical interactions. Moreover, it is already in use at the airport. As Dubai opens its doors to the world for Expo 2020, an increased use of public transport cannot be ruled out. Facial recognition would help enforce law and order in a more efficient manner, just like in several other cities. However, this technology should not exist in a regulatory vacuum. As we embrace the numerous conveniences of new age systems, we should be mindful of the challenges too.