3M eyes facial recognition technology despite privacy concerns

From social media to thwarting crime and terrorism, facial recognition technology is becoming a big business and one Minnesota company is looking to cash in. A couple years ago, Maplewood-based 3M acquired the California company Cogent, which develops a variety of identification systems, for nearly $1 billion. 3M Cogent marketing director Teresa Wu tells the Star Tribune, "The next step in applications will be face-in-the-crowd -- identifying people at long distance."