Facial Recognition Is the Perfect Tool for Oppression
With such a grave threat to privacy and civil liberties, measured regulation should be abandoned in favor of an outright ban
Co-authored with Evan Selinger
The Trojans would have loved facial recognition technology.
It’s easy to accept an outwardly compelling but ultimately illusory view about what the future will look like once the full potential of facial recognition technology is unlocked. From this perspective, you’ll never have to meet a stranger, fuss with passwords, or worry about forgetting your wallet. You’ll be able organize your entire video and picture collection in seconds — even instantly find photos of your kids running around at summer camp. More important, missing people will be located, schools will become safe, and the bad guys won’t get away with hiding in the shadows or under desks.
Total convenience. Absolute justice. Churches completely full on Sundays. At long last, our tech utopia will be realized.
We believe facial recognition technology is the most uniquely dangerous surveillance mechanism ever invented.
