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Technology Stocks : Viisage Technology (VISG) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Pluvia who wrote (345)	11/9/2001 1:37:58 PM
From: rrufff	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 536

Looks like you got people running. What's your target? or are you saying this is a go to 0? Any thoughts on INVN? I know you guys are very bearish on all the defense 9/11 runups. Best wishes, RR

To: Pluvia who wrote (345)	11/9/2001 1:46:10 PM
From: StockDung	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 536

Face recognition is invasive, doesn't work-critics By Leslie Gevirtz BOSTON, Nov 1 (Reuters) - The face recognition technology that airport officials are rushing to install after the Sept. 11 attacks can be outsmarted by a pair of sunglasses and is an invasion of privacy, critics of the systems said on Thursday. But Wall Street continues to love the biometric firms whose stocks are soaring as they win contracts at U.S. airports for their face-scanning technology. "They say they're going to use this to catch the bad guys, to catch the terrorist. Well, there is no database of terrorists," Barry Steinhardt, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union told reporters. "And the terrorists are not exactly lining up to submit their photographs to Langley," a reference to the Virginia headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency. "The technology will be a way to track the movements of innocent civilians and give people a false sense of security because it doesn't work," he said. Known as biometrics, the technology still has a long way to go, according to Richard Smith, an independent security analyst, who demonstrated one maker's version for reporters. Visionics Corp <VSNX.O> specializes in systems that use digital cameras linked to computers to scan faces and automatically compare them with electronic pictures stored in databases. "If the lighting is just right, the background is a solid color like white and the pose is the same, then it works -- some of the time. But simply wearing sunglasses kills the ability of the system," Smith said. Visionics spokeswoman Frances Zelazny countered, "My answer to that is that people are going to the airport to travel. Travel is a privilege, not a right. And if somebody was to remove your glasses to perform a test against a watchlist of terrorists, then that is reasonable." 10 MOST WANTED IS DATABASE She added that there was a database of terrorists. "What do you call the FBI's 10 Most Wanted. ... Terror is not faceless. The fact that within 24 hours the FBI and the CIA were able to provide pictures of the terrorists means there's a database." Visionics main competitor, Viisage, has a false acceptance rate of one in 300, Smith said. "There's marketing literature and then there's the technical literature. The technical side is a lot more honest," he added. The CIA knew in 1999 that two of the 19 airplane hijackers were in the United States and did not need biometric technology to find them, he said. "Here's one listed in the white pages (of the telephone directory)," Smith said. He pulled up a page from the Web site Switchboard.com that listed Nawaf Alhazmi with a home address in San Diego. Alhazmi was aboard the American Airlines flight that crashed into the Pentagon. Viisage Technology Inc.'s <VISG.O> biometric system was used at last year's Super Bowl in Tampa, Florida, and according to the ACLU's Steinhardt, photographed 75,000 sports fans without their knowledge or consent. Those pictures were then matched to a criminal database. "We were told it was supposed to be to catch murderers and really bad guys. They had 19 matches, many of which were false, and the ones that weren't were pickpockets and ticket scalpers. Not my idea of really bad guys," Steinhardt said. Viisage Chief Executive Thomas Colatosti said, "This is only a tool. It's like having a metal detector at the airport. Of course, there will be false positives ... I'm totally confused as to why they are so resistant to something that will have a material impact on the safety and security and help build the confidence of the flying public." SYSTEM TESTED ON BORDER The ACLU said the Immigration and Naturalization Service had tested a biometrics system along the U.S. border with Mexico and rejected it as being too inaccurate. The U.S. Department of Defense had also studied the systems and found many false positives. Conglomerate Tyco International Inc. <TYC.N> said on Thursday its ADT Security Services unit will sell a face-recognition system designed by Visionics in a deal to take advantage of the interest in the technology since the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. Visionics closed up 71 cents, or nearly 5 percent, to $16.67 Thursday on Nasdaq trade. The gain puts the stock near its 52-week high of $17.15. It sank to $2.37 last year. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, Viisage shares have soared about 85 percent, closing Thursday at $13.10 on the Nasdaq. The company on Thursday reported a 10 percent gain in third-quarter profit. Tyco stock closed at $50 on Thursday, up 86 cents, in the middle of its 52-week range. 18:12 11-01-01