11/9 Essay: Read this November 2nd article on a change in use of facial recognition technology by Meta (formerly Facebook) (hat tip to Arthur). What are your general thoughts on government and private company utilization of technologies that are able to recognize a face and/or match a human face from a digital image or a video frame against a database of faces? What advantages or benefits could/do such technologies provide? What role (if any) should a government play in regulating their use by individuals or companies?

When facial recognition technology first came to light, it was one of the most fascinating advancements that I had heard about and I couldn’t understand how it truly worked until I began to learn the steps behind the algorithm. After researching how facial recognition functions, I read that when it detects one’s face, it uses biometrics to map facial features from photographs or videos. It then compares your face analysis with a database specifically used to pinpoint faces as it converts the image to data and finally finds the match. However, as much as it may seem like a step forward that has only done good in our everyday lives, it has also been significantly overused and even violated our personal and professional lives. I think that governments and private companies utilization of technologies that are able to recognize a face or match a human face from a digital image or video frame against a database of faces is an improvement that has created both advantages and disadvantages in our society today.

Facial recognition and face analysis have improved public security (i.e., helps track down criminals and terrorists), have led to fast and non-invasive automated identification (i.e., collecting data about them and entering them directly into computer systems) and lastly, have many benefits in both banking and retail. On the other hand, there are also many drawbacks to using facial recognition such as, threats to privacy, violation of rights and personal freedoms and the risk of data theft. Along with these disadvantages, there’s an additional risk of error due to the defects that may occur in the technology. Furthermore, many agencies are in fact already using facial recognition or plan to head in that direction to help secure data and technology that may be sensitive in comparison to others. Governments also plan on using facial recognition to better protect their physical locations but as stated in the article, “European regulators and lawmakers have also taken steps toward blocking law enforcement from scanning facial features in public spaces”, meaning that facial recognition has gotten out of hand in many instances to the point where policy makers have had to block the systems from examining faces and collecting their data.