Facial Recognition On the Rise!
You may wonder what in the world is the connection between social credit and facial recognition. Or you may want to go back a step to social credit. Facial recognition, I know. But what is social credit?
Glad to be of help. Social credit is the attitude of a non-democratic, more controlling government, toward those citizens who behave as required by the government. Go the speed limit. Don’t jay-walk. Don’t post fake news. Don’t slip an unpaid for item into your bag. Don’t buy too many video games (too much alcohol). Each social deed has its plus or minus. If you do well, you earn credit. If you do poorly you are identified as someone to be avoided.
What are we talking about?
Now doesn’t that raise questions? Like, “Where in the world would such a government exist?” China. With China’s technological growth, there has come new ways to marginalize people into a system of control. For example, the use of facial recognition. China’s advancement in both the hardware and software of facial recognition has provided extensive city-wide systems wherein people can be identified committing simple social crimes.
Controlling Jr High Students
In these cities all behavior can be tracked by CCTV. Good and honest behavior is rewarded with cheaper airline tickets (for example). While committing wrong deeds may lead to being banned from flights and trains. Making life “better” by rewarding good behavior and denouncing (embarrassment system) that which is unacceptable. Actually, it sounds pretty much like the way schools and teachers control Junior High students. Facial recognition is almost perfectly accurate — no more saying, “It wasn’t me!” The camera identifies you. But is it perfect?
The Creepy Video
Business Insider has produced an informative video. They call it a “creepy video.” Because who knows what the controls are? BuzzFeed News has reported that the US Customs and Border Protection is using facial recognition technology. They use it to protect against non-US citizens who use fraudulent travel documents.
They also use facial recognition to identify those with proper registration to provide a quicker check-in process, reducing lines and wait times. Is the CBP creating a digital identification library without consent by storing the photos gathered at the border? CBP says they are not storing photos, but deleting after 12 hours. They also give US citizens the option to opt out of facial recognition check-in and receive a manual check-in. In China, one can easily see the excesses through misuse of available technology.
Existence of US Facial Recognition
There are other common uses of facial recognition besides that of the government. Notably, Facebook picture identification, iPhone login and Amazon’s Rekognition. Imagine living in New York City and receiving a photo of yourself jaywalking each time you violated the street rule!
Current mistakes in facial recognition can be overcome by a larger database of faces. There is, in spite of the denials, good reason to keep every facial recognition photo taken. It increases accuracy!
