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Topic option 1: Facial Recognition
Discuss the issues relating to widespread government use of facial-recognition software in public places (streets, theaters, malls). Is facial recognition a useful tool for society, and for police work? Or does its use need to be severely curtailed, through regulation? Who, if anyone, is unfairly affected by it?
At this point, facial-recognition software is very effective, usually accurate to 0.1%. It is no longer experimental. It appears that issues of racial bias (egpoorer recognition for some groups) has been solved, at least in software (there are still issues with collectingimagesand the subject's overall skin lightness or darkness).
Not that long ago, you were effectively anonymous walking around the city streets, outside your immediate neighborhood. Now you are not
Clearview is a facial-recognition product nominally sold only to police. Should there be legal restrictions on its use by law enforcement? Note that facial-recognition software can be used to identify most individuals in a crowd photograph, such as of a BLM protest or the January 6 Capitol riot. What are the civil-liberties implications of the use of facial-recognition software by police? Are there privacy concerns aside from traditional civil liberties? There are concerns that people will be falsely implicated and arrested by facial-recognition errors, but other identification methods used by the police (including eyewitnesses) seem in fact to be muchlessreliable.
There is also the question of availability of facial-recognition software to everyone else, outside the police. Who is affected here? If a stranger sees you on the street and takes a picture, they can presumably find your real identity. This can lead, for example, to stalking. At one point, Facebook seemed on the verge of introducing this, but then they backed off.
Store and business cameras may tag some facial images as present in the store at the time of an incident, such as shoplifting or some other disturbance. Will this lead to discrimination?
Here are some special cases to think about:
- identification of people attending an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting
- identification of patients (including at abortion clinics)
- identification of witnesses
- identification of sex workers and adult-film performers
Either argue that facial-recognition software is, on the whole, beneficial for society, or that it is not. If you take the latter view, you may (but are not required to) advocate for some restrictions on its use.