Throughout modern history, specifically the 20th century, biometric identification technologies such as finger print and face scans have been the security measure of choice in countless books and movies. Only recently though have these two things become everyday technologies in our lives. They allow us to sign into accounts, buy things, tag people in pictures, and even take attendance for school in some places. All of these uses are widely considered benign and even seen as making life easier.
With the benefits of these ID technologies comes potential dangers as well. Fingerprint and Face scanners’ widespread use could allow for a single organization to collect data from all people and create a database to be used for whatever the owner wanted, be it identity theft or, more realistically, surveillance. Facial recognition is already being used to identify criminals and is being developed to stop the use of fake ID’s at stores and bars. In this scenario, I see these types of technologies being used by a government to always be aware of where people are and what they are doing. Microsoft’s president Brad Smith shared his views on this technology by saying he fears a government exploitation of this technology for the same reasons.
While I don’t believe the exploitation of this technology for control by the government is something to worry about any time soon in the US due to the nature of our country, it needs to be worried about at some point because of facial recognition software’s potential use in the private sector. Companies already are known to collect user information from where they visit online and target ads for them, so imagine what could happen if they could track what stores you visit and what your daily routine is like. This technology is another method for advertisers to build a profile of each person in an attempt to influence the consumer to buy products they mostly do not need. Overall, this growing technology has benefits for our society, but come with the potential to be greatly abused for malicious purposes.
https://www.recode.net/2018/11/7/18072048/facial-recognition-regulation-brad-smith-tony-blair-web-summit