Rental cars to use facial recognition to spy on your vacation (Updated)
image credit: IDEMIA
Five days ago, IDEMIA announced their plan to install facial recognition cameras in rental vehicles.
IDEMIA and Omoove are combining forces to spy on car renters everywhere.
"You will never rent a car the same way thanks to EasyOpen solution that combines IDEMIA’s expertise in secure service enablement and Omoove’s experience in Shared Mobility platforms and on-board technology."
They got one thing right, 'you will never rent a car the same way'. Because now companies will use facial biometrics to spy on your family vacations, shopping, dining etc., in real-time.
"This year, both companies have just announced the introduction of a new process for the digital enrollment of the driver combined with facial recognition technology, which will be implemented into EasyOpen solution."
Last year, I warned everyone that the Lincoln company has installed 'complimentary' TSA PreCheck biometric scanners in their 2018 vehicles. (Click here see how Honda's 2018 Odyssey uses CabinWatch to spy on passengers and click here to see VW's biometric passenger recognition car.)
Turning rental cars into facial biometric surveillance platforms is a privacy nightmare.
How will law enforcement use facial biometrics?
Avis and Kansas City to share rental car data, hopes to spy on 100K cars by year end
According to Avis Budget Group Chief Innovation Officer Arthur Orduña their rental vehicles will share real-time vehicle information like their location, fuel reading, mileage and other operational data with Avis officials, Kansas City and their drivers.
"By the end of the year, about 100,000 of the company's cars will be"connected," say company officials, with the plan to install the technology on all 600,000 Avis brand rental cars in the United States."
According to an article in 4-Traders.com, Avis will send Kansas City updates about their rental vehicles every 15 minutes.
Police will use facial biometrics to spy on your family
Law enforcement and car rental companies will be able to use facial biometrics to spy on your vacation no matter where in the world you go or which company you choose.
Car rental companies can combine GPS and facial recognition data to create an intimate record of your family vacation.
A 2015 news article in The Street, revealed that most rental vehicles are equipped with GPS location systems and cameras.
"Numerous Florida car rental companies are notorious for literally shutting off engines of cars that cross state lines."
And another article in Komando warned that Hertz had secretly installed video cameras in their vehicles.
Once a rental company has your facial biometrics and other personal information, it will be easy for law enforcement and data mining companies to access those records. (Click here, here and here to find out how car rental privacy polices share your personal information.)
Who is IDEMIA?
IDEMIA, formerly known as MorphoTrust also wants states to do away with physical drivers licenses and ID's and store everyone's facial biometrics on a smartphone.
As of August 2017, there are eleven states using digital drivers licenses and ID's in the U.S. (Click here to find out more about IDEMIA's digital drivers licenses and ID's.)
Who is Omoove?
Omoove specializes in end-to-end shared mobility; in other words, they work with car rental companies to track a vehicle's every movement in real-time.
"Omoove gives your operators the ability to track vehicles and access diagnostics in real-time through a central console, so you never have to worry about losing visibility into key user and vehicle metrics again."
Unfortunately, IDEMIA is not the only company trying to install facial biomterics in rental cars.
A company called BioID also wants to install them in rental vehicles.
BioID admits that the "spying economy," sorry I meant the "sharing economy" is a booming industry. But what makes them different from IDEMIA is they also want to use voice and eye verification for your safety, wink, wink.
Forcing car rental customers to provide their biometrics is law enforcement's wet dream and is just one more way for DHS and the Border Patrol to spy on everyone.
If we don't fight back against facial biometrics it will be too late.