{"id":6192,"date":"2019-03-08T18:59:44","date_gmt":"2019-03-08T22:59:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ncjolt.org\/?p=6192"},"modified":"2020-06-04T20:52:26","modified_gmt":"2020-06-04T20:52:26","slug":"facial-recognition-data-privacy-concerns-on-your-own-block","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/blogs\/facial-recognition-data-privacy-concerns-on-your-own-block\/","title":{"rendered":"Facial Recognition: Data Privacy Concerns on Your Own Block"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Facial recognition technology has experienced a boom this\npast year. Amazon launched Amazon Rekognition<\/a>, which has been used in cities like Orlando, FL<\/a>, to scan faces in public and flag\ncriminal matches against its database. A handful of retailers<\/a> have also begun using facial recognition cameras in their\nstores to primarily monitor shoplifting and stealing, but to also identify\nunhappy customers. <\/p>\n\n\n

Notably, Illinois and Texas are the only states<\/a> where it is illegal to collect\nbiometric data without consent. Both states have passed their own version of\nbiometric information privacy acts. These laws limit how people\u2019s retina or iris scans, fingerprints, voiceprints, hand and\nface scans<\/a>\nmay be collected and used. Illinois requires entities using facial recognition\ntechnology to obtain express, written consent from people before taking their\nbiometric data. Both states also require disclosure of the length of time\nbiometric identifiers will be used. But with no federal laws<\/a> and limited state laws to guide\nthis technology, there are many concerns<\/a> about how companies and cities actually use data they\ncollect, who else has access, and whether consumer privacy laws may be\nviolated.<\/p>\n\n\n

Amazon provides for a useful case study in examining the\npotential privacy and civil liberties problems unregulated facial recognition\npresents. Studies have shown that facial recognition technology — though\nseemingly sophisticated — has a tendency to mismatch and misidentify people,\nnamely people of color. The ACLU identified that Amazon Rekognition \u201cfalsely identified\u201d<\/a> 28 Congressmen with arrest\nmugshots; the false matches were disproportionately people of color. These\nfalse matches are especially alarming because Amazon has promoted<\/a> Rekognition to police departments, the FBI, and U.S.\nImmigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). <\/p>\n\n\n

Demanding more transparency and details about Rekogition, a small group of U.S. Representative sent a letter<\/a> to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in November 2018.\u00a0 In response to the US Representatives\u2019 letter, Bezos recently posted a pithy blog post<\/a> that proposed unworkable<\/a> legislation, dodged many questions, and denied allegations of misuse<\/a>. Bezo\u2019s call for federal regulation<\/a> is further complicated by the fact that Amazon has a patent pending<\/a> that would allow Rekogniton to use biometric information it has already gathered to track individuals and link them to their residence and place of work<\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

In response to these concerns and the widespread, unregulated use of facial recognition technology, the U.S. House Oversight and Reform committee is \u201cconsidering holding a hearing\u201d<\/a> on facial recognition technology. The House\u2019s consideration for a hearing may be too late to protect against exploitation of biometric data. For those who would have never given consent to share our biometric data, it is unlikely that they will able to recover or regulate their biometric information from these companies. For years, with unfettered access and ability to collect biometric data from millions of Americans, private companies, state and local governments have already amassed an incalculable amount of data and are using it how they please. <\/p>\n\n\n

Mariah Ahmed, 25 February 2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Facial recognition technology has experienced a boom this past year. Amazon launched Amazon Rekognition, which has been used in cities like Orlando, FL, to scan faces in public and flag criminal matches against its database. A handful of retailers have also begun using facial recognition cameras in their stores to primarily monitor shoplifting and stealing, …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6193,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[51],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6192"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6192"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6841,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6192\/revisions\/6841"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}