I have read in the privacy community that facial recognition done in public places is considered problematic. Not knowing what is considered the crux of the matter, I have to ask about some facial and behavioral recognition use cases here, and whether they are a problem or not

  • Digital signage on roads, cameras in stores, etc. read pedestrians’ faces, movements, etc. and infer attributes for marketing purposes (sometimes the inferred attributes are stored as is, sometimes they are stored as statistics and the attributes themselves are removed)
  • Public transit agencies can share police databases to identify and track individuals with arrest records
  • Public agencies use facial and behavioral recognition to determine and track suspicious persons. The information read is stored.
    • groceansongOP
      1·
      3 years ago

      The use cases mentioned in the above text are common in my country. So I would like to understand if these use cases are a problem and why.

      • GenkiFeral
        3·
        3 years ago

        i would hate to live in your country. either there are mnay criminals needing to be watched, or your government has made so many oppressive laws that many people are made into criminals based on the laws only. ChaungTzu talks a bit about how a bird would rather live freely in a dangerous convenient world than be well-fed and taken care of in a cage.

        • groceansongOP
          1·
          3 years ago

          Did you as an innocent person explicitly agree to be tracked this way and your sensitive biometric data being stored?

          Generally, clear consent for all users is not possible, so a sign is posted there. And if you do not agree, you can choose not to use those services (although that is virtually impossible).

          Also, in my country, anything other than biometric data obtained by special equipment is not considered sufficient biometric data and is on the border between illegal and legal.

            • groceansongOP
              1·
              3 years ago

              I think there is a legal grey area there right now as the technological development moved much faster than the corresponding legal situation.

              I agree. And unfortunately even if laws are enacted, governments and companies will secretly operate those systems (as they have done and will do in my country).