WHY THIS QUESTION MATTERS:

In May 2019, San Francisco made headlines when it became the first U.S. city to ban police use of facial recognition technology. The technology analyzes human faces and matches them to an existing database to verify an individual's identity. Over the last decade, the facial recognition technology has become increasingly accessible for government entities, businesses, and private citizens alike. But as the technology has grown, so too have concerns of its use or misuse.

Supporters of San Francisco’s ban argue that the government’s use of facial recognition has the potential to infringe on individual civil liberties. On the other hand, critics of the ban argue that the government’s use of facial recognition makes communities safer and should be permitted to help law enforcement reduce crime.



A BRIEF HISTORY OF FACIAL RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGY:

The first manual facial recognition tools were created in the 1960s. At that time, individuals could use a RAND tablet to input horizontal and vertical coordinates on a grid to coordinate locations of various facial features in pictures. Since then, technology has advanced tremendously and has become much more accessible.

Beginning in 2017, anyone who purchases an iPhone X has the option to unlock their phone or make a payment by simply holding the device in front of their face and allowing the technology to recognize them. Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies are relying more heavily on facial recognition to solve crimes and quickly track down leads.

The market for facial recognition software is growing by 20% each year and is expected to be worth $9 billion by 2022. According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), between 2014 and 2018 facial recognition software got 20 times better at searching a database to find a matching photograph.



FACIAL RECOGNITION AND PRIVACY CONCERNS:

However, the prolific use of this technology has begun to raise concern amongst privacy advocates who are worried the technology has the power to encroach on individual civil liberties. There are a couple of key concerns here — first, there are concerns over the government’s ability to track citizens whereabouts whether or not they’ve committed a crime, etc. Second, there are no federal regulations for how these massive personal biometric databases are collected or stored. And third, there are concerns about how the data will be stored to ensure there are no breaches.

As the world of tech continues to accelerate, some argue that these new facial recognition technologies should be better regulated while others argue that they should be outright banned for government use.

What do you think?





The Common Thread

Supporters and opponents of the ban both say they are concerned with protecting individual safety and liberties.

FIND YOUR Thread

Supporters of San Francisco’s ban argue that the government’s use of facial recognition has the potential to infringe on individual civil liberties. Critics of the ban argue that the government’s use of facial recognition makes communities safer and should be permitted to help law enforcement reduce crime.