Ethics of Facial Recognition

Facial recognition has entered the mass market with the ability to use our faces to unlock smartphones and computers. While facial recognition allows machines to identify a person with a quick look at their face, the technology comes with significant ethical concerns. Companies or governments that are planning on using facial recognition will need to be aware of these concerns and address them. They will need to assess each ethical concern and consider how the customer, employees and the general public would react if they knew how companies or governments are using the technology.        

Bias and Accuracy Concerns

One main key concern is the racial bias that facial recognition has against dark-skinned faces with more errors detected in darker-skinned faces than in light-skinned faces. The inaccuracies of facial recognition could mean organisations have a higher chance of identifying a dark-skinned individual inaccurately and punishing the wrong person.

Lack of Transparency and Consent

Facial recognition technology is often employed without consent or notification. Using facial recognition technology to identify individuals when entering a building or station can open further concerns. Companies can use the identity of the individuals to run checks such as purchasing history, credit report and police reports. The main ethical issue would be what the companies would do with the information gathered from using facial recognition technology without the knowledge and consent of the concerned individual.

Mass Surveillance

Using facial recognition as a mass surveillance method could be used as good intentions to keep the public. However, organisations can use it to keep records of bad behaviour and use it against citizens. The freedom of movement and tending to your daily life could no longer be private as organisations could monitor your whereabouts minute by minute.   

Data Privacy

The public has started to become more aware of the data being gathered by companies and how they are used to market products or services towards them without them knowing. The deepest concern for all parties would be how the information is stored and managed. With more data being held digitally, cybersecurity is more important than ever to ensure all data stored is secure and encrypted.   

Data Breaches 

Data breaches can raise serious privacy concerns for both the public and the government. Data breaches can be a huge concern for citizens as their personal information has been accessed by hackers and could potentially be leaked or misused. Advancements in cybersecurity technology and an increase in the use of cloud-based storage have improved security protocols in information security.

Summary

As facial recognition technology improves and with organisations looking to implement the technology in a private or public setting, organisations will need to consider the ethical issues behind the technology and ensure all safeguards are in place to keep the public safe. Government policymakers will need to define the guidelines to safeguard the public and to ensure organisations are not misusing information gathered on individuals.