Apple's Facial Recognition Backfiring?

Technology whilst extremely helpful to us will always have downsides, and this was proven true when Ousmane Bah,  a college student from New York, was wrongfully arrested which according to the lawsuit was due to 'misidentification by Apple's facial-recognition software'.  He filed the claim against Apple and a security firm Security Industry Specialists Inc. on Monday.

Bah was still a high-school student when he received a summons from a court in Boston accusing him of stealing $1,200 worth of Apple products - in particular, Apple Pencils - from an Apple Store in Boston.  He said he had never been to Boston and was attending his senior prom in Manhattan on the day authorities said the theft took place.

Ousmane Bah, now 18, claims that he was incorrectly identified as the robber, and denies that he's the person in the photo that accompanied the warrant for his arrest. Backed by surveillance footage and the testimony of a detective, district attorneys in New York and Boston have already dropped the charges against Bah. Because of this, Bah is suing Apple for $1 billion for damages.

According to the lawsuit, NYPD detective John Reinhold first noticed that Bah "looked nothing like" the suspect in the surveillance video of a Manhattan Apple Store that was robbed. The detective then explained that Apple's security technology identifies suspects of theft using facial recognition technology.

On an interview, Reinhold agreed that Apple doesn't technically have facial recognition in its stores, but also that his statements as described in the lawsuit were correct. He declined to answer further questions, but it's worth noting that the second defendant on the lawsuit, Security Industry Specialists, might explain the contradiction - it could have been that company which used facial recognition to analyze security footage after the fact, and possibly outside of Apple's facilities.

The detective also suspected that the real thief might have used Bah's driver's permit (which did not have a photo), one that he had lost, as ID during one of the offenses, thereby linking Bah to the crimes in Apple's systems.  

"This fact is concerning, particularly in light of the fact consumers are not generally aware of Defendant's use of facial recognition technology within its security system," the lawsuit says. "Presumably, Defendant's security system scans consumers' faces to look for matches on a list of suspects. 

The lawsuit tries to justify the $1 billion claim by alleging that Apple and SIS caused harm to Bah by their wrongful actions, including causing him to be arrested by the NYPD at his home in four in the morning, forcing him to miss school and a midterm exam, which then hurt his grades. The suit claims Apple was negligent, intentionally inflicted emotional distress, and defamed and slandered Bah, among other charges.