Recently, I read an article on BBC news that a controversial facial recognition company, Clearview AI, announced it had given its technology to the Ukrainian government to help identify the dead in Ukraine.
The controversial part comes when it is known that the company has scrapped billions of photos from social media companies, like Facebook and Twitter, to create an enormous database of what its CEO and founder Hoan Ton-That calls “a search engine for faces”, something like how Google has scrapped billions of information and is now one of the most reliable search engines. And of course, due to the privacy laws, the company has faced multiple legal challenges, with the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office even fining the company for failing to inform people it was collecting photos of them.
However, I believe that there are ways to ensure the ethical use of this technology and the company could adopt the following principles proposed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU):
- Collection: Institutions should obtain informed, written consent from citizens before including their biometric data in the facial recognition database.
- Usage: Users should refrain from using facial recognition systems to determine an individual’s skin color, race, religion, national origin, gender, age, or disability.
- Disclosure: The results of a facial recognition system shouldn’t be traded or shared without the informed, written consent of the data subject.
- Security: Organizations should have dedicated security professionals to host, manage, and secure facial recognition information.
- Transparency: Organizations must define policies for compliance and use of data while offering the necessary technical measures to verify accountability.
All in all, I believe the use of facial recognition has been revolutionary but users of such technology should be more careful with how they collect and use the photos of people.
References
- Article Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-61055319
- External Source: https://learn.g2.com/ethics-of-facial-recognition#:~:text=The%20top%20six%20ethical%20concerns,breaches%2C%20and%20inefficient%20legal%20support.
The safety on the web has been a long-term growing concern, but I suppose it is a natural exchange you get something and lose something. Overall, I believe people should get more knowledge and education about the cybersecurity threats and how to avoid getting into troubles online, as it is becoming a bigger part of our lives with every upcoming day.