If facial recognition or other biometric technologies had been integrated into the cards (credit, debit, store-issued cards), then the Target data breach last December might not have wreaked havoc, because a person other than the card holder would not be able to use the stolen cards at stores. A silver lining is that the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) now applies facial recognition technology, even though the applied technology has some restrictions. For example, people are told not to smile when having their photo taken at the DMV office in Newark, NJ.

Facial recognition, which utilizes the statistical features of face images to recognize people, is the most common way for human beings to recognize each other. If computers could recognize humans equally well, many problems could be solved. We may struggle with remembering various passwords for our accounts or leave our ID cards at home, but we always bring our face with us.

The expected trend for personal and cyber security is that more and more organizations will deploy facial recognition technology to safeguard our accounts and credit cards as we get ever more connected to the wired and wireless networks. Indeed, facial verification will replace the passcodes on our smartphones and tablets (iOS and Android).

Facial image search will augment text search on Internet portals, such as Facebook, YouTube, as well as Google. […]