Limburg carnival festival will use facial recognition for access

The carnival festival 11devande11de will use facial recognition technology so that carnival goers can get onto the site faster. It is not mandatory for visitors to have their faces scanned.

Facial recognition works via the People Flows software, reports 1Limburg. Via this app, people can fill in their details in advance of the visit, take a photo of their identification and take a selfie. Their face and associated data will then be placed in the People Flows database.

At the festival, registered visitors can have their faces scanned at special facial recognition locks for a camera. The software then checks whether the face matches the data entered on the app. According to the facial recognition company, the technology also works when visitors wear make-up. However, the eyes must remain uncovered. The contours of the face must also be visible to the camera.

In this way, according to People Flows, it should go a lot faster to enter the festival than if visitors have to have their ID checked on the spot. However, visitors must still have their corona pass scanned separately. According to 1Limburg, a quarter of the people who have already bought a ticket have so far registered via the People Flows app.

The GDPR is strict about the use of biometric recognition as access control. That is allowed, but only if there are also alternative ways to enter. This is a gray area, because if there are, for example, several biometric gateways and only one ‘normal’ one, it can be interpreted as if the alternative is not the same.