Question: With current technology, what do you think about personal privacy?
With current technology, personal privacy will be easily infringed, especially the facial recognition software. In government, the facial recognition component of the FBI’s $1 billion Next Generation Identification (NGI) program set to launch in 2014 will include a database with massive data collection for both criminal and noncriminal purposes. This database will be shared among agencies at the local, state, federal and international levels. Even though this database will allow law enforcement to identify criminals more accurately, it presents critical threats to civil liberties and privacy. In private enterprises, companies are beginning to use facial recognition technology to improve business. National retailers are installing cameras to learn more about customers, while entities like malls can put cameras in digital billboards that recognize the age and gender of their shoppers and tailor ads to them on the spot. But the fear is as facial recognition gets better and more in use by commercial entities, it will increasingly track us without our knowledge or consent. Smart-phones will make "facial searches" as common as Google searches in the future; nearly everybody can be subject to such prying, even those who are careful about their Internet use.
-Justin Chow
With current technology, personal privacy will be easily infringed, especially the facial recognition software. In government, the facial recognition component of the FBI’s $1 billion Next Generation Identification (NGI) program set to launch in 2014 will include a database with massive data collection for both criminal and noncriminal purposes. This database will be shared among agencies at the local, state, federal and international levels. Even though this database will allow law enforcement to identify criminals more accurately, it presents critical threats to civil liberties and privacy. In private enterprises, companies are beginning to use facial recognition technology to improve business. National retailers are installing cameras to learn more about customers, while entities like malls can put cameras in digital billboards that recognize the age and gender of their shoppers and tailor ads to them on the spot. But the fear is as facial recognition gets better and more in use by commercial entities, it will increasingly track us without our knowledge or consent. Smart-phones will make "facial searches" as common as Google searches in the future; nearly everybody can be subject to such prying, even those who are careful about their Internet use.
-Justin Chow
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