Tech Roundup, Mar. 6, 2019 | Brazil-made facial recognition beats plastic surgery

You’re reading The Brazilian Report‘s weekly tech roundup, a digest of the most important news on technology and innovation in Brazil. This week’s topics: the new made-in-Brazil facial recognition system. The booming ecosystem for marketing startups. Retailers’ “new Black Friday.”

Brazilian startup develops plastic surgery-proof facial recognition

A system accurate enough to distinguish between identical twins and people who have undergone plastic surgeries. That’s what Brazilian facial recognition startup FullFace is offering, with made-in-Brazil technology. 

How does it work? FullFace’s technology analyzes 1024 facial points and 256 face images to identify a user. Moreover, it stores the image as a 16,000-digit number, from which it is not possible to assemble an image. “If someone intercepts our database, they won’t see the picture of any customer,” explained CEO Danny Kabiljo to Globo. The service is also software-based and is available on the cloud.   

Why it matters. Debates on facial recognition are increasing in Brazil, as the country gets ready to implement its new Data Protection Law (LGPD). Foreign alternatives, such as Chinese technologies, were targeted by a public backlash last year, as Brazilians fear how their data would be handled. 

So far, facial recognition has been used by the government mainly for security purposes, as in the famous case of a wanted criminal who was arrested by Salvador city police in 2019’s Carnival, while he was wearing a costume.

Brazil’s booming martech ecosystem

The inefficiencies of Brazil’s banking system made the country fertile ground for fintechs, and it is now home to companies such as unicorn Nubank and PagSeguro. Now, a startup accelerator believes a similar process may happen in...