As many people became familiar with face recognition technology through the Face ID used to unlock their phones or to complete tasks, the same technology helped make remarkable achievements in distinct fields, including border control, banking, and healthcare.
Facial recognition technology’s use by the police has become more common as several agencies in different countries rely on it to solve crimes, find missing people, or protect the country’s borders.
Snapchat Filters Misrepresented as Face Recognition Technology
Many social media users are claiming that Snapchat filters are a facial recognition database created by the FBI and used to collect data for federal law enforcement. The allegations have stirred debates about a potential link between these filters and the face recognition technology that became a sensitive topic.
“Snapchat filters are a facial recognition database created by the FBI,” reads a post circulated online.
“A lil PSA for y’all Snapchat lovers: Hope you know that it’s filters are Facial Recognition Software patented by the FBI. Patent #9396354,” another Facebook user wrote.
Running a Twitter search using the keywords “Snapchat filters” and “facial recognition” has proven that the claim has been circulated years ago. “Every app or Snapchat filter that wants to scan your face and do something with it helps train facial recognition algorithms that hasten the onset of an authoritarian cyber-dystopia…” wrote a Twitter user in 2019.
Snapchat Filters Are Not a Face Recognition Tool
The Snapchat filters, known as lenses, allow users to digitally alter their appearance in selfies by adding color effects, dog ears, sunglasses, and mustaches, or feature Bitmojis. These filters are artistic overlays that appear when you take a Snap and swipe left or right.
Snapchat will launch an unprecedented public awareness campaign with the Ad Council to help educate parents and young people on the dangers of counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl, that have become one of the leading causes of death for adults in the U.S.
The campaign brought together Meta, Snap, YouTube, and other platforms for the first time on such a critical issue and worked to improve their efforts and detect drug dealers exploiting Snapchat. And although the company aims to increase its support for law enforcement investigations to bring these dealers to justice, the Snapchat filters are not a face recognition technology created to enrich the FBI database.
According to Snapchat’s recent statement, the social media platform works on growing its law enforcement team supporting law enforcement investigations, with many team members from careers as prosecutors and law enforcement officials with experience in youth safety.
“These investments have helped us continue to strengthen our support for fulfilling law enforcement requests for information, which we prioritize based on urgency,” the company stated.
Along with many actions and procedures, Snapchat confirmed it is trying to improve its response times for requests that do not involve an imminent threat to life.
A spokesperson for Snap, parent company of Snapchat, told USA Today the app does not collect any data that can be used to identify a specific person. “The limited data used to power lenses isn't sent to the company's servers and never leaves the user's mobile device,” USA Today reported.
Although the Snapchat lenses can identify an eye, a nose, or a mouth and apply the filters, it cannot determine that these face parts belong to a specific person.
“Our camera uses technology to locate certain features – like where your hands, eyes and nose are – and uses that information to place the lenses,” reads the website.
The Claim Contains a Misleading Patent
Our team ran a Google Advanced Search using the patent code included in the claim. However, we did not find any indication that the company is using the technology in the patent, which turned out to be for a facial recognition technique.
According to Google Patents, the technology’s privacy rules are applied to the image to alter it in a way that protects the user’s privacy.
The Government Accountability Office announced last year that at least 42 federal agencies employing law enforcement officers have used facial recognition technology. However, no credible sources confirmed that the FBI uses Snapchat filters. Our team did not find reliable information about which law enforcement agencies use this tool.
Misbar’s Sources
