{"id":5857,"date":"2019-08-23T09:46:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-23T08:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qpol.qub.ac.uk\/?p=5857"},"modified":"2019-08-23T09:46:00","modified_gmt":"2019-08-23T08:46:00","slug":"facial-recognition-ten-reasons-you-should-be-worried-about-the-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/facial-recognition-ten-reasons-you-should-be-worried-about-the-technology\/","title":{"rendered":"Facial recognition: ten reasons you should be worried about the technology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Facial recognition technology is spreading fast. Already&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/2018\/10\/28\/in-china-facial-recognition-tech-is-watching-you\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">widespread in China<\/a>, software that identifies people by comparing images of their faces against a database of records is now being adopted across much of the rest of the world. It\u2019s common among&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/how-facial-recognition-became-routine-policing-tool-america-n1004251\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">police forces<\/a>&nbsp;but has also been used at&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/opinion\/when-your-face-is-your-boarding-pass-you-are-holidaying-with-big-brother-1.3949353\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">airports<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/technology-49357759\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">railway stations<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-england-south-yorkshire-49369772\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">shopping centres<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The rapid growth of this technology has triggered a much-needed debate.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2019\/may\/21\/office-worker-launches-uks-first-police-facial-recognition-legal-action\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Activists<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2019\/8\/19\/20812032\/bernie-sanders-facial-recognition-police-ban-surveillance-reform\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">politicians<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.essex.ac.uk\/news\/2019\/07\/03\/met-police-live-facial-recognition-trial-concerns\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">academics<\/a>&nbsp;and even&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2019\/aug\/17\/police-halt-trials-face-recognition-systems-surveillance-technology\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">police forces<\/a>&nbsp;are expressing serious concerns over the impact facial recognition could have on a political culture based on rights and democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Human rights concerns<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>As someone who researches the future of human rights, I share these concerns. Here are ten reasons why we should worry about the use of facial recognition technology in public spaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>1) It puts us on a path towards automated blanket surveillance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>CCTV is already widespread around the world, but for governments to use footage against you they have to find specific clips of you doing something they can claim as evidence. Facial recognition technology brings monitoring to new levels. It enables the automated and indiscriminate live surveillance of people as they go about their daily business, giving authorities the chance to track your every move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>2) It operates without a clear legal or regulatory framework<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most countries have no specific legislation that regulates the use of facial recognition technology, although&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.parliament.uk\/business\/committees\/committees-a-z\/commons-select\/science-and-technology-committee\/news-parliament-2017\/biometrics-strategy-report-publication-17-19\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">some lawmakers<\/a>&nbsp;are&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/recode\/2019\/8\/9\/20799022\/facial-recognition-law\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">trying to change<\/a>&nbsp;this. This legal limbo opens the door to abuse, such as obtaining our images without our&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk\/news\/press-releases-and-statements\/liberty-client-takes-police-ground-breaking-facial-recognition\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">knowledge or consent<\/a>&nbsp;and using them in ways we would not approve of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To continue reading, <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/facial-recognition-ten-reasons-you-should-be-worried-about-the-technology-122137\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">please click here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Article originally appeared in <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/facial-recognition-ten-reasons-you-should-be-worried-about-the-technology-122137\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Conversation.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/arselectronica\/6943972882\/in\/photolist-bzBFdo-6ckK2J-9PFzVX-dZEPjH-gQm1T1-qaD5wk-gQgD8e-gQifLA-gQmsXT-gQmBqe-gQh6qd-gQhYZp-gQgTme-gQANGh-gQjd1e-gQiRDx-gQiER9-2ddZBKx-gQmy7a-gQj9LD-gQkzX7-gQmDvX-gQjLSL-gQkV8d-gQmto2-gQhXFK-gQkRPZ-gQkTA5-gQiWEW-gQgoyW-gQhFDc-gQjhEx-gQkTgs-gQijrH-gQkSWj-2fTw58j-gQkEKJ-gQkQJm-gQiCyd-gQgwFC-gQiHDn-gQiH6u-gQhtb7-gQiaq7-gQjtFk-gQhdaB-gQhr5z-gQAC5d-gQj9c2-gQiKuh\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">featured&nbsp;image<\/a><\/em>&nbsp;<em>has been used courtesy of a&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc\/2.0\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Creative Commons license.&nbsp;<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Facial recognition technology is spreading fast. Dr Birgit Schippers discusses the impact it could have on a political culture based on rights and democracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2533,"featured_media":5860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[860,861,19,832],"class_list":["post-5857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-information-technology","tag-digital-rights","tag-facial-recognition","tag-human-rights","tag-privacy"],"mb":[],"acf":{"authors":{"simple_value_formatted":"","value_formatted":null,"value":null,"field":{"ID":9774,"key":"field_66d0cbf58f930","label":"Authors","name":"authors","aria-label":"","prefix":"acf","type":"relationship","value":null,"menu_order":1,"instructions":"","required":0,"id":"","class":"","conditional_logic":0,"parent":9772,"wrapper":{"width":"","class":"","id":""},"post_type":["authors"],"post_status":["publish"],"taxonomy":"","filters":["search"],"return_format":"id","min":0,"max":10,"allow_in_bindings":0,"elements":["featured_image"],"bidirectional":0,"bidirectional_target":[],"_name":"authors","_valid":1}},"description":{"simple_value_formatted":"","value_formatted":"","value":"","field":{"ID":9776,"key":"field_66d2183027749","label":"Description","name":"description","aria-label":"","prefix":"acf","type":"wysiwyg","value":null,"menu_order":3,"instructions":"","required":0,"id":"","class":"","conditional_logic":0,"parent":9772,"wrapper":{"width":"","class":"","id":""},"default_value":"","allow_in_bindings":0,"tabs":"all","toolbar":"basic","media_upload":0,"delay":1,"_name":"description","_valid":1}}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/76\/2019\/08\/6943972882_7b31832852_z.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"mfb_rest_fields":["title","jetpack_featured_media_url","jetpack_sharing_enabled","amp_enabled"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2533"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}