Tracking And Biometric Technologies (inFocus/Context Update 1406)

In January, a meme on Facebook captioned “How did aging Eff ect [sic] you?” went viral, asking users to post a photo of themselves from 10 years before and one from the present. More than 5.2 million people participated in this so-called “10-Year Challenge.” Was it harmless fun or a way for Facebook to get more data to feed and improve the functionality of its facial recognition engine? In this instance, Facebook said it was not involved in the challenge and didn’t get anything out of it, but given how quickly companies and governments are moving toward the use of facial recognition and other biometric technologies, it is an obvious question to ask. At least 133.5 million American adults in 31 states are now represented in a facial recognition database accessible by U.S. law enforcement, not including U.S. passport and visa photos, which are also searchable by the FBI. Countless other individuals are in facial recognition databases of tech giants like Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and Google or smaller technology companies, such as Clear. Despite instances of pushback from employees at some of these companies, errors in the technology’s conclusions and conversations around passing regulation, experimentation with and use of facial recognition and biometric technologies continue to gain momentum, especially as they relate to venue security and making things easier and faster for the Digitally Trained Consumer.