Unregulated Use of Facial Recognition Software Could Curb 1st Amendment Rights
117 million Americans have had their faces scanned by facial recognition software, and put into databases searchable by local, state, and federal authorities, a Georgetown University report finds. This accounts for about half of all US adults. Researchers at the Center on Privacy and Technology penned this worrisome report entitled, “The Perpetual Lineup.” Any person it seems can be accessed or followed at any time and for any reason, calling into question just how important citizen’s privacy actually is. If you have a driver’s license photo, chances are you are in this everlasting lineup.
Another revelation, such software carries a racial bias. African Americans and other minorities were far more likely to have been entered into a database. 50 civil liberties groups, including the ACLU, petitioned the Justice Department to investigate this software’s use, as regulation of any kind was absent in almost all cases.
