FBI Facial Recognition Database

Half of American Adults Exist in a Government Accessible Facial Recognition Network

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This is a topic I’ve written about occasionally over the years. A recent article published by Vocativ adds some interesting information to the discomforting trend.

Vocativ reports:

Half of all American adults are already in some sort of facial recognition network accessible to law enforcement, according to a comprehensive new study.

Conducted over a year and relying in part on Freedom of Information and public record requests to 106 law enforcement agencies, the study, conducted by Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy and Technology, found American police use of facial recognition technology is a scattered, hodgepodge network of laws and regulations.

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“This is No Longer Fiction” – The Era of Automatic Facial Recognition and Surveillance Is Here

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Whenever cryptographer and computer security specialist Bruce Schneier issues a warning about something, I pay close attention.

What follows are excerpts from a recent piece he wrote for Forbes titled, The Era of Automatic Facial Recognition and Surveillance Is Here:

ID checks were a common response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, but they’ll soon be obsolete. You won’t have to show your ID, because you’ll be identified automatically. A security camera will capture your face, and it’ll be matched with your name and a whole lot of other information besides. Welcome to the world of automatic facial recognition. Those who have access to databases of identified photos will have the power to identify us. Yes, it’ll enable some amazing personalized services; but it’ll also enable whole new levels of surveillance. The underlying technologies are being developed today, and there are currently no rules limiting their use.

Read that again: “There are no rules limiting their use.”

Walk by a policeman, and she will know your name, address, criminal record, and with whom you routinely are seen. The potential for discrimination is enormous, especially in low-income communities where people are routinely harassed for things like unpaid parking tickets and other minor violations. And in a country where people are arrested for their political views, the use of this technology quickly turns into a nightmare scenario.

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Iris Scanners are Coming to College Campuses

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Last week, I highlighted a couple of articles to hammer home just how fast technology seems to be invading our every day lives, whether we like it or not. In case you missed them, I suggest taking a read now:

Turning Humans Into Algos – The Trend of Employees Wearing “Biosensing Wearable Devices” at Work

“Minority Report”-esque Big Brother Billboards are Coming to England

Today’s article related to iris scanners and their increased popularity on college campuses. Virginia Commonwealth University is the latest school to roll out these entirely unnecessary and creepy devices, following the lead of George Mason University and University of New Hampshire.

The Huffington Post covered the story recent, here are some excerpts:

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