EDRi cites technology announced in 2021.
As facial recognition technology must adapt to the “New Normal,” NEC developed the new algorithm which specifically focuses on the (periocular) area around the individual’s eyes for use in a broad range of applications from smart phones to workplaces.
The engine performs mask detection, and based on the result selects which algorithm to use for biometric face matching.
NEC’s technology focuses on around and between the eyes if a mask is detected, which may include the eyebrows and forehead. Wearing eyeglasses, a visor, a hat, a balaclava, etc, may help defeat the technology.
The engine was found more than 99.9 percent accurate in internal 1:1 verification tests with masks of various colors and patterns.
The technology was highly successful at one-to-one verification when put through laboratory testing, but how well it works in production to identify (not just verify) faces may be a very different story. Still, I don’t deny the technology is capable of identifying some people’s faces with certain degrees of confidence.
Similarly, according to the same article, the Face Recognition Company (FRC) developed a facial recognition technology they claim has a negligible performance difference for masked and unmasked targets, anticipating the need for such technology before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Generally speaking, I think the efficacy of facial recognition technology would depend highly on the specifics of the recognition technology, training data, environment (for example, lighting and camera position), image quality, target person and their mask (or other coverings).
Assuming surveillance technology developers will continually improve their products, countering them will be an arms race that people will eventually lose to. Too much identifying information (biometrics or otherwise) is remotely perceptible by cameras and other sensors. However, not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good, the more biometrics someone conceals and the less often they are exposed to sensors, generally the better off they will be against this kind of surveillance.
Corporate/government surveillance systems are not the only threats to privacy in the physical world. There’s literally billions of cameras carried around by people and attached to vehicles and houses.