Privacy in A World of Facial Recognition Tools

CW: discrimination, police reform

This week in class, we are discussing intellectual property, privacy, and ethics. It has been a while since I have discussed these topics in an academic setting; I think the last time might have been my senior year in high school, so it has been a while! That was 2011-2012, so a lot has changed since then. I forgot that back then was really when smart phones were becoming overwhelmingly popular. I didn't even have a smart phone in high school, that would be almost unheard of today!

One of the things that has changed drastically in that time is facial recognition technology. It was first invented in the 1960s by Woody Bledsoe, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin and a pioneer in artificial intelligence. Today, it is the way that most Apple users log into their iPhones. It is also the way that police can identify a suspect in a crime. Amazon Web Services offers a program called Rekognition that many police departments use; the city of Orlando's police department used it briefly from 2018 to 2019. However, due to added pressure from civil rights groups and police-reform advocates, Amazon just announced a one-year moratorium on the technology with calls for them to just outright ban it all together. Researchers have had an issue with it ever since it was introduced, arguing that it shows bias towards those with darker skin, women, and younger people (as if these groups are not already singled out and discriminated enough in America.) Another tech giant, IBM, has quit selling facial recognition software to police departments entirely, citing (rightly) concerns for human rights.

Although not expressly mentioned, privacy is at the heart of these calls for the end of police departments using this kind of technology. It's bad enough that Apple already sells face ID scans to apps. That is unacceptable as it is. It is not okay for police departments to be able to scan a person's face and then immediately know where they live, their phone numbers, even their social media accounts. American citizens have the right to privacy.

What do you think of all this? Please leave a comment and let me know!


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