Google just announced a face unlock feature for the upcoming Pixel 4, which claims to be just as accurate and fast as the iPhone’s Face ID. There have been hardware and code leaks that suggested this feature was coming to the Pixel 4, but there was also another big hint: Google has been publicly gathering data to improve it.
As first revealed by ZDNet and Android Police, Google employees have been roving the streets of American cities, offering $5 gift certificates in exchange for a facial scan. Reached by The Verge, Google confirmed that it has been conducting what it calls “field research” to collect face-scanning data in order to improve its algorithms and thereby improve the Pixel 4’s accuracy.
The scans were obtained after people filled out consent forms, and included color, depth and infrared data as well as related info like the way a person grabbed a phone from a table. The Soli radar in the Pixel needs the motion data to tell it when to activate face unlock. Google also acknowledged collecting location info at first, but said the data wasn’t necessary and would delete it. The rest of the data will be deleted after 18 months.
Security and privacy are core principles for Pixel. Face unlock uses facial recognition technology that is processed on your device, so that image data never leaves your phone. The images used for face unlock are never saved or shared with other Google services. To protect your privacy and security, your face data is securely stored in Pixel’s Titan M security chip. Similarly, Soli sensor data is also processed on your phone, and it’s never saved or shared with other Google services
Apple also asked for face scans when it was developing the TrueDepth camera and Face ID, although it collected scans as part of studies and supplemented them as necessary to get a wider range of samples.
