A few decades ago, facial recognition technology only existed in science fiction. However, rapid advances in technology have fuelled the proliferation of facial recognition technology in recent years. The technology measures and analyzes people’s faces and compares it to images in their database.
Today, the technology is prevalent in a wide range of commercial contexts and is rapidly expanding into new areas of our private and public lives. At this rate, facial detection technology will soon be a common aspect of our daily lives.
Facial recognition has a myriad of use cases in a wide range of settings. In business, face detection tech is proving useful in identifying the unique characteristics of customers in retail marketing and advertising. In law enforcement, government agencies in different parts of the world are leveraging the power of facial recognition technology to aid their efforts in combating crime and terrorism. But despite its benefits, face analysis tech carries a certain degree of risk.
The Good
At its core, facial recognition is a technology used to analyze faces for the purpose of identification or verification. Due to its potential benefits, facial recognition tech has become an area of significant interest for governments and private entities. Here are the considerable benefits of facial recognition technology.
Security. In terms of security, facial recognition technology can help police identify criminal elements, ensure safety in public spaces, and general maintenance of law and order. Face detection tech also helps police prevent human trafficking and find missing children.
Medicine. Facial recognition technology can be used to identify genetic disorders with a facial scan. This is possible because some genetic disorders come with a facial trait. For instance, facial recognition tech has been shown to detect DiGeorge syndrome with a 96.6 percent success rate.
Marketing. Marketing firms often consider factors such as ethnicity, age, and gender when creating products or services for their customers. Marketers can use facial recognition technology to define their audiences with a high level of accuracy.
The Bad
As stated earlier, facial recognition technology has a dark side. Facial recognition technology protests focus on the following concerns.
Violation of Freedom and Privacy. Facial recognition tech gives government agencies the power to single out individuals in public spaces and track them. Our movements are no longer private. This is tantamount to the violation of our basic freedoms. In fact, privacy is one of the major concerns of people protesting against the use of facial recognition.
Safety. This technology also has the potential of being misused in stalking and online harassment. It gives perpetrators the ability to use a picture of their victim to find out every little detail about them, including their home address or place of work. This threatens our personal privacy as well as safety.
Mistaken Identity. Facial recognition systems are not 100% accurate. In fact, they are far from it. Studies have shown that facial recognition algorithms tend to misidentify racial minorities. In law enforcement, mistaken identity can easily lead to a wrongful conviction.
Facial recognition technology can be dangerous. With retailers, social media platforms, smartphone manufacturers, and federal authorities employing the technology, facial recognition has become more pervasive and even more concerning. The good news is that there are steps you can take to protect yourself from this intrusion.
How to Protect Yourself
Nobody is safe from facial recognition technology. Since we can’t hide in our houses forever, we can wear anti-facial recognition glasses and masks to conceal our faces partially. But the threat of surveillance exists online on social media sites such as Facebook. You can stop the social media giant from tracking you by opting out of its facial recognition system. You can also use a VPN to protect your privacy online. A Virtual Private Network (VPN) will encrypt your connection, making it impossible for someone to spy on your online activities.
The positive side of facial recognition technology is indisputable. However, we cannot ignore the potential drawbacks. For starters, the surveillance capabilities of facial recognition technology allow the government to identify and track people in public, often without their knowledge or consent. The accuracy of facial recognition systems is also questionable and puts lives in danger, especially when facial recognition technology is used in law enforcement.
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