QUESTION
What are the positive uses of facial recognition technology?
2:23:03
·
60 sec
Council Member Jennifer Gutiérrez asks if there are any positive examples of facial recognition technology. Albert Fox Cahn from the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project distinguishes between beneficial personal use, like unlocking devices, and concerning public tracking without consent.
- Cahn says using facial recognition to unlock personal devices is acceptable
- But tracking people in public spaces without consent raises privacy concerns
- He argues proposed bills aim to regulate public tracking, not personal device use
Jennifer Gutiérrez
2:23:03
But are there any positive examples of where the use of facial recognition technology is beneficial?
Albert Fox Cahn
2:23:12
I would say there's a world of difference between the facial ID we use to unlock our devices.
2:23:19
And the facial profiling that tracks New Yorkers in public spaces.
2:23:24
It's about powers, it's about consent.
2:23:26
When we use this as a tool to unlock our own device.
2:23:29
That is a very different question than when these unaccountable companies and institutions weaponize our own bodies against us and use it as a way to track us in public spaces.
2:23:42
So that's why these bills wouldn't impact your ability to use this sort of biometric identifier on your own device as a way to unlock your own data.
2:23:58
But that's not the sort of thing that people have ever been pushing back against.
Jennifer Gutiérrez
2:24:02
Brett, that's right.
2:24:03
Thank you.
