The above image was made with stable diffusion using the prompt 'face in a phone.'
Technologies of repression are trending. A recent Scheer Post article titled "Digital Privacy Legislation is Civil Rights Legislation" included the following quote:
Special concerns are raised when brick-and-mortar stores use face recognition technology to screen all of their potential customers to exclude supposedly unwanted customers. Many stores have long used this technology to try to detect potential shoplifters, often relying on error-prone, racially biased criminal justice data. Madison Square Gardens was recently caught using this technology to exclude employees of a law firm that sued the venue’s parent company.
Although facial recognition tech isn't new, I was surprised to learn how far it's spread. Companies like Walmart and Rite Aid are embracing facial recognition to identify undesirables. While I understand the desire to keep shoplifters out of stores, the tech can also be used for less reasonable purposes.
It seems likely that we'll someday soon have a facial recognition phone app that tells us who the people around us are. In a way, this might even be a good thing. We evolved to live in Dunbar-sized communities where everyone knows everyone. The modern world routinely puts in touch with crowds of strangers. If an app made these crowds of strangers into people with names, that might help us get along with each other better.
There are three problems with this that I see. Any facial recognition system has a high potential for abuse by stalkers and other predators. Also, the tech is inherently dehumanizing, as it reduces people to mathematical identities. "I'm sorry, the computer says I can't let you in," sounds very dystopian. And this points to the third problem I see with facial recognition tech, which is simply that it's creepy.
The use of facial recognition by law enforcement is particularly troubling. Early versions of the tech are totally racist and subject misidentification is common. That's a recipe for disaster when the stakes are high.
Despite these problems, this and other technologies of repression will continue to proliferate. And they probably won't make anything any safer. I'm reminded of the gas station across from the coffee shop in my neighborhood. Shoplifting, fights, and the occasional gunfight were happening at the gas station, so they put in a solar powered surveillance tower that announces every few minutes that the area is being recorded.
Unsurprisingly, the criminals were undeterred. They're used to being recorded everywhere. They just do their crimes like normal while the surveillance tower barks empty threats at them. If the gas station starts identifying them with facial recognition and refusing them service, maybe they'll have their gunfights somewhere else.
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