Facial-recognition technology gets a smack in the chops from civil rights campaigners
- Reference: 1626290045
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/07/14/civil_rights_facial_recognition/
- Source link:
[1]Fight for the Future – which is made up of more than 35 organisations including the Consumer Federation of America, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), and the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP) – says people's faces should not be scanned, stored, or sold just because they stroll into a shop or work in a store.
While it claims retail giants such as Walmart and Kroger have said they would not deploy facial recognition in stores, it claims others – including Macy's, Albertsons, and Lowes – are still using the technology.
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McDonald's, 7-11, and Best Buy are among retailers that have not clarified their policies, the group said in a statement, while Home Depot, Target, Costco, and Verizon don't have plans to use facial recognition in their stores.
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Supporters of facial recognition claim it helps with security by identifying shoplifters and potentially suspect behaviour. They also claim it can be used to personalise in-store marketing and improve customer service.
Some banks in America have already been [5]installing cameras with machine-learning software to keep an eye on people, claiming it'll help reduce fraud while monitoring potentially criminal activity near ATMs.
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Opponents claim the technology is a major infringement to civil liberties.
"Face surveillance in stores is an assault on our human rights," said Jennifer Brody, US Advocacy Manager at digital civil rights outfit Access Now.
"Corporations' attempts to determine what demographic 'box' we fit into based on our facial features and expressions is a clear invasion of privacy. These surveillance systems perpetuate systemic discrimination, and must be stopped."
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Tracy Rosenberg, Advocacy Director at Oakland Privacy, which campaigns on issues regarding the use of surveillance techniques and equipment, said consumers should not be spied on just to go shopping for books or clothes.
"This biased software has already put people in jail for crimes they did not commit. Being vetted for our suitability to shop is an authoritarian nightmare, not the free and democratic society we want and expect."
[8]Los Angeles police ban facial recognition software and launch review after officers accused of unauthorized use
[9]San Francisco votes no to facial-recognition tech for cops, govt – while its denizens create it
[10]MIT apologizes, permanently pulls offline huge dataset that taught AI systems to use racist, misogynistic slurs
[11]IBM quits facial recognition because Black Lives Matter
[12]London's top cop dismisses 'highly inaccurate or ill informed' facial-recognition critics, possibly ironically
What's clear is that the issue is of digital civil rights is already [13]gaining increased traction among legislators . Recently, the State of Maine introduced what the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) described as the "strongest state facial-recognition law in the US" banning officials from using the tech except in a limited number of circumstances. ®
Get our [14]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.fightforthefuture.org/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YO9ee4yBhNKftil5BUh2-QAAAJc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YO9ee4yBhNKftil5BUh2-QAAAJc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YO9ee4yBhNKftil5BUh2-QAAAJc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/24/in_brief_ai/
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YO9ee4yBhNKftil5BUh2-QAAAJc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YO9ee4yBhNKftil5BUh2-QAAAJc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/19/lapd_facial_recogntion/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2019/05/14/san_francisco_facial_recognition_ban/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2020/07/01/mit_dataset_removed/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2020/06/09/ibm_quits_facial_recognition_tech/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2020/02/25/uk_facial_recognition/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/01/us_facial_recognition_backlash/
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: What's the problem?
You don't like being face-scanned at High St store X = don't shop on High St at store X !
Where are you going to shop when all stores will be doing that?
You know how you are now driving your few remaining customers to boycott you ?
Majority of people don't know about this or don't care, so a few customers who are aware of the abuse will not make a dent in profits.
That's why this needs regulation.
Re: What's the problem?
Regulation would be good, but until/unless it happens we're left at the mercy of such entities that insist on using the tech.
Unless, of course, you resort to posting on social media about your experience, insisting that you will boycott them for such behavior, & urging everyone else to #boycott$company.
Get that hashtag trending, let it go viral, & $Company will quickly change their behavior as the court of public opinion proves to be a rather powerful stick with which to beat a clue into their heads with.
I came to post my experience earlier today, so this is as good of a place as any. I went to BestBuy today to buy a HDD. Upon entering their store I get asked by an employee to remove my mask for security purposes. I insist that I'll continue to wear it because I'd rather not die of the plague, TYVM. He insists I take it off, I shake my head & leave instead. If you want to engage in facial recog tech that's fine, but don't be surprised when your customers decide to vote with their wallets & feet. So long BestBuy, you just lost a sale. Why? Because you insisted I remove my face mask during a global pandemic so you could scan my face to make sure I wasn't ... what? A homicidal sociopathic killer about to slaughter everyone with my navigation cane?
The tech is so buggy it has no business being used for anything other than further experimentation to finetune the various bits. If you want to use it in public then you had better make sure it works *at least* with 90% accuracy else you're setting yourself up to get slapped with a lawsuit for discrimination/persecution/etc. =-\
Re: What's the problem?
>So long BestBuy, you just lost a sale.
But as the other poster said, how else are you able to buy electronics without going into a physical store?
It's not like there is some magic shop on your phone that you can just touch the picture and have the item delivered to your door at a lower price
Re: What's the problem?
The problem is that "the sheeple" won't care until it's too late. In the meantime, their ignorance and indifference will force the rest of us into the same situation.
Now that I know that Lowe's is still using the technology and that Home Depot isn't, I will be getting my stuff at the HD. Same prices, pretty much the same assortment.
If I do need something at Lowe's I'll order online and have them bring it to me in the parking lot. Thanks to the pandemic this is now an option.
In addition, I will be filling out the surveys they put on the receipts even more frequently. Lowe's to tell them why I'm not getting out of my car. HD's survey to tell them why I'm avoiding Lowe's.
At the end of the day I don't know that it'll make much of a difference, though. Tracking is ubiquitous and virtually unavoidable. Want to bet virtually every retailer has either already matched customers' phone MAC-addresses to their names, or is contemplating doing so?
Customer Service
"it can be used to personalise in-store marketing and improve customer service"
By this they mean following you around the store pointing out things they want you to buy, rather than letting you find them for yourself. Remember how supermarkets, particularly the food retailers regularly re-arrange their stores so that you cannot fund what you normally buy? That is making you look at things you don't normally buy in the hope that you will start. Maybe there will be a tannoy announcement:
"And for Robert* who has just entered the store wearing his usual baggy jeans and red hoodie top, the haemorrhoid cream is now located in the second isle from the single portion meals aisle which stock your favourite chicken vindaloo. Buy both and get 50p off."
As for 'improving' customer service, how?
*Not my real name, I do not have baggy jeans, a red hoodie top, eat chicken vindaloo or have haemorrhoids. (Honest.)
Re: Customer Service
"it can be used to personalise in-store marketing and improve customer service"
Is a marketing speak for manipulation and fraud. They want to make you think you need something and then take your money.
How is it putting people in jail "for crimes they didn't commit"? The technology doesn't put people in jail, the justice system puts people in jail, and the only way evidence can be used to support a conviction is if that evidence supports that conviction. If they didn't do the crime, the evidence didn't support the conviction, some other factor - *human* factors - perverted the process.
The concept of innocent until proven guilty has been gone for years. There are instances where you have to prove that you didn't do what you have been accused of.
really? can you give one example of such an instance?
have 3
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/07/09/post_office_admits_false_accusations_after_computer_system_cockup/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39328853
http://www.wired.com/2014/02/no-fly-coverup/
https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/29/apple_sis_lawsuit/
Until the attorney was able to find the “lost” evidence which exonerated him, it seemed that someone was going to be sent up the river for a crime he didn’t commit!
Is facial recognition worse than an old fashioned lineup or a eye witness?
Yes because the computer 'recognised' you - although you've never been to an Apple store.
So the police break down your door at 4:00am and assuming they don't 'accidentally' shoot your at that point you go to prison where they offer you a deal = stay in prison for months while we wait for a trial, where 12 dumb idiots will be told that the magic AI super secret algorithm says you are guilty
And once again: Is it worse than what has basically always been there? Are human biases in human brains better than in artificial neural networks?
Humans are notoriously bad witnesses. It does not take a lot for AI to do better.
Fecal recognition software
The pun demanded it happen, and now Tel Aviv is testing all dog shite for DNA to track down illegal street shit. All dogs have to submit DNA so presumably there is a Dog Shite DBA, Dog Shite data entry, and a Dog Shite Czar. Personally I wouldn't want Dog Shite on my CV, but then some of the places I've worked...
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-tel-aviv-wants-to-collect-dog-dna-to-ensure-owners-collect-poop-1.9996375
Double jeopardy
> "This biased software has already put people in jail for crimes they did not commit. Being vetted for our suitability to shop is an authoritarian nightmare, not the free and democratic society we want and expect."
Shall we have a sweepstake on how long before an incident where a person is 'recognised' simultaneously committing a crime at two geographically separate stores and gets prosecuted for both ?
What's the problem?
You don't like being face-scanned at High St store X = don't shop on High St at store X !
Hey High St Store X - you know how the high street is fscked and everyone is shopping online and you are going bust?
You know how you are now driving your few remaining customers to boycott you ?
Yeah, perhaps don't do that !