Colorado Students Unknowingly Photographed For Facial Recognition Study

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) - More than 1,700 people walking on a University of Colorado campus were unknowingly photographed as part of a facial recognition research project. The Denver Post reported Monday that professor Terrance Boult set up a long-range surveillance camera in an office window at the Colorado Springs campus. It captured more than 16,000 images of passers-by during the spring semesters of 2012 and 2013.

Boult says the images were collected to create a dataset to enhance facial recognition technology. It was made publicly available online in 2016 and was taken down in April. Boult says he waited five years to release the dataset online to protect student privacy.

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University spokesman Jared Verner says a panel reviewed the research protocol for the project, which was first reported on by the Colorado Springs Independent.

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