Dubai UAE Law Enforcement To Employ Google Glass For Facial Recognition To ID Suspects

One of the original big features of Google's Glass was facial recognition, but after catching a ton of flack for it, the company decided last summer to purge the feature on its cutting-edge device. However, while that might be the case, the company is finding it impossible to distance itself from the fact that Glass, is in fact, great for facial recognition.

Just before Google made it clear that it was getting rid of facial recognition on Glass last summer, Lambda Labs talked about its own solution, and back in February of this year, a start-up called NameTag added its name to the list. Google's made it clear that its stance on facial recognition is firm, so even if a third-party solution is to create a related app, it will not appear on the official Glass app store.

But sometimes, that just doesn't matter - something Dubai's police force today highlights. As you can probably guess, this all boils down to being able to detect a suspect in the wild, and yes, the force had to adopt custom-developed software to make this a reality.

Initially, Glass will be handed out to traffic police, people who'd be able to scan an enormous number of faces in a given day. Eventually, detectives will be given units as well.

There's sure to be a divide of opinions on this use of Glass. On one hand, having your face scanned without your knowledge is a major invasion of privacy, but on the other, this could help oust the dangerous criminals that walk among us. What are your thoughts? Should police forces be allowed to adopt Glass for this purpose?