A new conversation on facial recognition is happening in a new era, where many Americans are more sensitive to some of the controversial ways that this technology could be used.
This week, we have a collection of new stories, including news that IBM is putting the brakes on some of its market participation in facial recognition based on concerns about racial profiling.
“IBM firmly opposes and will not condone uses of any technology, including facial recognition technology offered by other vendors, for mass surveillance, racial profiling, violations of basic human rights and freedoms, or any purpose which is not consistent with our values and principles of trust and transparency,” CEO Arvind Krishna said in a letter to congressional leaders on Monday, according to reporting at CNet by Steven Musil.
There’s also news around U.S. legislator Ed Markey going to bat for the common citizen’s privacy. Markey’s concerns extends to before the George Lloyd protests changed the feeling in America, where a press release by Markey’s office details a January letter to facial recognition AI firm Clearview:
“Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) today sent a letter querying Clearview AI CEO Hoan Ton-That about the company’s facial recognition app, which has reportedly been sold to more than 600 law enforcement agencies,” write spokespersons for the Senator, who has also been engaged in efforts to secure health care coverage for first responders harmed in 9/11. “Recent reporting in the New York Times revealed that Clearview’s app allows users to capture and upload photos of strangers, analyze the photographed individuals’ biometric information, and provide users with existing images and personal information of the photographed individuals online. In his letter, Senator Markey expresses concern that adoption of this technology could completely eliminate public anonymity in the United States.”
The press release includes this direct quote by Markey:
“Any technology with the ability to collect and analyze individuals’ biometric information has alarming potential to impinge on the public’s civil liberties and privacy … Clearview’s product appears to pose particularly chilling privacy risks, and I am deeply concerned that it is capable of fundamentally dismantling Americans’ expectation that they can move, assemble, or simply appear in public without being identified.”
Now, those fears are compounded by the ramping up of law enforcement activity around nationwide protests.
In that context, even some of the reassurances from industry leaders may fall on deaf ears.
CNet’s Corinne Reichert reports that Clearview AI’s CEO Hoan Ton-That has specified that the company’s facial recognition technology is only to be used for “after the crime” analysis and not for preemptive monitoring of, say, lawful protest or civil unrest on American streets.
The assertion seems naïve in the context of a week where Bureau of Prisons staff have been contracted to patrol Washington DC, and in which so many thousands of Americans are becoming engaged with law enforcement in new and frightening ways.
In short, many citizen advocacy groups and other observers would have a hard time believing in practical boundaries for facial recognition as they see the boundaries of traditional law enforcement being pushed and tested.
With that in mind, expect facial recognition to fare poorly as some of the collateral damage of today’s more sensitive social and political environment.
