While facial recognition is marketed as a convenient and secure tool for things like air travel and banking, this article explains why it also presents serious risks to our privacy.
How do you feel about the increasing use of facial recognition technology in everyday life?
The article mentions the most concerning aspect - incorrect associations. Mistakes could be costly, and likely very slow to be rectified. Opting in or out is also no guarantee. Security breaches are real, and I would rather someone NOT have my facial recognition data. Trust levels of organisations with virtually unlimited storage capacity are also very low. Even if a ‘right to be forgotten’ law exists, will such organisations really remove my data, or will it simply be cloaked?
I am fully aware that I have given out a lot of data about myself already. It is impossible not to, in order to bank and conduct business online. I believe there should be limits to what constitutes required info, and which info has the potential to become intrusive.
”If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear”
is a line with a very short shelf-life. Rules change, and with a change what was once “nothing to fear” could become exactly the opposite.
Let the vain be immortalised digitally. I’d rather not be.
Since humans started creating tools to enhance their performance, every innovation has balanced a benefit with a drawback. Tools become weapons. Imperfect solutions can become unacceptable risks. However, the march of progress leads to the ability of the planet to support billions of people, by balancing the mitigation of risks against the overall outcome. Thus, in 2025, we pretty much accept that we will use “the latest” technology, even though it may expose us to personal risk. We fly, even though planemakers make mistakes, we drive, even though other drivers lose control, we transact, even though the networks are insecure. We should have no more fear of facial recognition than we do of fingerprints, PIN numbers, passwords or signatures.