Guest Post by Brad Smith.
Facial recognition systems are one piece of technology that the world now realizes that it slept on.
The idea was a juicy one when we first learned of it. Being able to identify people based on their faces – even when they are in a crowd of multitudes – is a novel idea. It took the widespread adaptation of the technology in airports, security checkpoints, and even open streets to trigger the knowledge of how they could be bad.
Here, we discuss some of the many ills of facial recognition and what you can do to protect yourself.
1 Blanket Surveillance
Actual surveillance should always be necessary and appropriate. This explains why law enforcement agents will need to get a court order before they can bug a person or legally follow them.
With the advent of facial recognition systems, though, this legal need is getting thrown out of the window. Now, any person of interest can be followed around, and they would not even know it.
This is a massive invasion of privacy, seeing as it can allow the following and tracking of plenty of people at once.
This leads us to the next problem.
2 Legality
Facial recognition has been left to grow for long without any serious legal framework around it.
There is almost no regulation that dictates how it can be used, where it can be used, or how it can be used. It is also practically impossible to determine how the data is obtained is used or stored in the systems.
This raises the question of what happens in the case of a breach.
Who will be legally responsible for the digital signatures of faces that can now be used by hackers? Do we even know how these hackers could use such facial data, either now or in the future?
3 Zero Consent
Facial recognition technology has made its way to our phones today. Here, we get to unlock our devices just by glancing at it and having our faces authenticated.
The difference between the system in phones and the widely deployed ones is in the consent.
Before you start unlocking your device with your face, you must have granted consent to the phone even to capture your face. When we step out in public and have to face these cameras, though, which gives them consent on our behalf?
This is undoubtedly not what democracy is about.
4 Inaccuracy
Although the technology and algorithms behind it are being refined daily, the inaccuracy that comes with facial recognition systems makes them a problem.
A series of studies have shown that the systems are biased towards individual races and ethnic backgrounds – and this is the fault of the minds behind such tech. After all, the system would have to be trained with a lot of different data samples for accuracy.
The problem above can lead to wrong identification, which can then cause illegal arrests, denial of service to whom it is due, harassment, etc.
The bias in these systems is also something of concern. Because, what if the developers are not even trying to include these data sets as a discriminatory move against the affected groups of people?
Solving the Problems
It would be too far-reaching to think that facial recognition software is going away soon. It has come to stay, but that does not mean there is nothing you can do about it.
You can opt-out of the facial recognition trials on diverse social media platforms like Facebook. In public, you can also benefit from privacy goggles or face masks that keep you protected from these cameras.
While protecting yourself in the offline world, make sure your online presence is not suffering either.
Make sure your data is not being collected indiscriminately by staying off public Wi-Fi, using a VPN to guarantee security, setting strong passwords, etc.
In line with that, support motions in your locale against the privacy invasion that is being perpetrated via facial recognition systems. If San Francisco can do it, any city/ state can, too.
About Author:
Brad Smith is a technology expert at TurnOnVPN, a non-profit promoting a safe, secure, and
censor-free internet.
Facial recognition systems are one piece of technology that the world now realizes that it slept on.
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| © Forbes |
Here, we discuss some of the many ills of facial recognition and what you can do to protect yourself.
1 Blanket Surveillance
Actual surveillance should always be necessary and appropriate. This explains why law enforcement agents will need to get a court order before they can bug a person or legally follow them.
With the advent of facial recognition systems, though, this legal need is getting thrown out of the window. Now, any person of interest can be followed around, and they would not even know it.
This is a massive invasion of privacy, seeing as it can allow the following and tracking of plenty of people at once.
This leads us to the next problem.
2 Legality
Facial recognition has been left to grow for long without any serious legal framework around it.
There is almost no regulation that dictates how it can be used, where it can be used, or how it can be used. It is also practically impossible to determine how the data is obtained is used or stored in the systems.
This raises the question of what happens in the case of a breach.
Who will be legally responsible for the digital signatures of faces that can now be used by hackers? Do we even know how these hackers could use such facial data, either now or in the future?
3 Zero Consent
Facial recognition technology has made its way to our phones today. Here, we get to unlock our devices just by glancing at it and having our faces authenticated.
The difference between the system in phones and the widely deployed ones is in the consent.
Before you start unlocking your device with your face, you must have granted consent to the phone even to capture your face. When we step out in public and have to face these cameras, though, which gives them consent on our behalf?
This is undoubtedly not what democracy is about.
4 Inaccuracy
Although the technology and algorithms behind it are being refined daily, the inaccuracy that comes with facial recognition systems makes them a problem.
A series of studies have shown that the systems are biased towards individual races and ethnic backgrounds – and this is the fault of the minds behind such tech. After all, the system would have to be trained with a lot of different data samples for accuracy.
The problem above can lead to wrong identification, which can then cause illegal arrests, denial of service to whom it is due, harassment, etc.
The bias in these systems is also something of concern. Because, what if the developers are not even trying to include these data sets as a discriminatory move against the affected groups of people?
Solving the Problems
It would be too far-reaching to think that facial recognition software is going away soon. It has come to stay, but that does not mean there is nothing you can do about it.
You can opt-out of the facial recognition trials on diverse social media platforms like Facebook. In public, you can also benefit from privacy goggles or face masks that keep you protected from these cameras.
While protecting yourself in the offline world, make sure your online presence is not suffering either.
Make sure your data is not being collected indiscriminately by staying off public Wi-Fi, using a VPN to guarantee security, setting strong passwords, etc.
In line with that, support motions in your locale against the privacy invasion that is being perpetrated via facial recognition systems. If San Francisco can do it, any city/ state can, too.
About Author:
censor-free internet.
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