Protection of the rights of the individual when using facial recognition technology

When facial recognition does not ‘recognise’: erroneous identifications and resulting liabilities

“…In recent years, a significant improvement in FR was achieved with the introduction of neural networks, a form of machine learning able to recognise individuals from a large dataset of images (Welinder and Palmer 2018), in particular convolutional neural networks (Wright 2019), considered the state of the art in this technology (Hancock et al 2020), but it is not known until when. Moreover, the more developed the technology is, the more skills are required of the operators; thus, technological development must come with proper technological training (Sarabdeen 2022). The fact that AI is able to learn can contribute to improvements in its level of accuracy.…”

Recommendations for Ethical Usage of Facial Recognition Technology

“…Such surveillance is done with the goal of improving public security and safety, but this comes at the cost of reduced public freedom and privacy of citizens. Public use of FRT gives law enforcement the power to effectively track and monitor any individual without restraint as most countries lack FRT regulation [4]. Additionally, this infringes on inherent rights to privacy, autonomy, and freedom.…”

“…Another concern with FRT which is common in literature is the discrepancies in accuracy rates between different races and false positives. Many studies have reviewed the efficacies of various FRT algorithms and have always found a higher rate of false positives amongst people of colour (POC), most notably black and Asian people [4]. It was found that 35% of errors occur on female women of colour as opposed to 1% on white males amongst US FRT systems.…”

“…One concern less discussed in literature is the way facial and biometric data is stored. Given that facial and biometric data are unique identifiers for each individual, it is critical that these are stored to the highest data protection standards to ensure data privacy and security [4]. Data breaches are a big privacy concern for the public and government as poor storage practices can lead to leaks of massive amounts of sensitive biometric data and loss of privacy.…”

“…Many of the perceived issues with FRT are rooted in the erosion of fundamental human rights, such as privacy and individual freedom. It is also not uncommon for FRT systems to incorrectly identify and incriminate innocent citizens [4]. Finally, FRT can be used without the knowledge of an individual to collect data and build a profile of one's behaviour or interests for purposes such as surveillance or targeted advertising.…”