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Google pledges to hold off on selling facial recognition technology
Today, Google shared information about some of the AI work it's doing in Asia, but in a blog post about the work, it also made a pretty clear statement about how its facial recognition technology will and won't be used for the time being. The company noted that while facial recognition systems stand to be quite useful in a variety of situations, from assistive technologies to locating missing people, they also comes with risks.
"Like many technologies with multiple uses, facial recognition merits careful consideration to ensure its use is aligned with our principles and values, and avoids abuse and harmful outcomes," Google said. "We continue to work with many organizations to identify and address these challenges, and unlike some other companies, Google Cloud has chosen not to offer general-purpose facial recognition APIs before working through important technology and policy questions."
[...] "This is a strong first step," the ACLU's Nicole Ozer said in a statement about Google's announcement. "Google today demonstrated that, unlike other companies doubling down on efforts to put dangerous face surveillance technology into the hands of law enforcement and ICE, it has a moral compass and is willing to take action to protect its customers and communities. Google also made clear that all companies must stop ignoring the grave harms these surveillance technologies pose to immigrants and people of color, and to our freedom to live our lives, visit a church, or participate in a protest without being tracked by the government."
(Score: 2) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Sunday December 16 2018, @06:59PM (2 children)
how its facial recognition technology will and won't be used for the time being.
Shouldn't it be for the people's representatives to decide what can and cannot be used to surveil the people?
This technology - as well as many others - have profound societal implications, and big unaccountable corporations like Google are essentially left to do whatever the hell they want with it. Are they so powerful as to be unstoppable now?
All rhetorical questions of course...
(Score: 4, Interesting) by darkfeline on Sunday December 16 2018, @10:42PM (1 child)
The government is not generally in the business of regulating every single piece of new technology.
It's not clear to me that the government should regulate facial recognition technology. If nothing else, because that means only the government would be able to use facial recognition.
Blah blah, I'm going to reference Manna, but given that monitoring will become ubiquitous simply as a matter of physical law (information is too easy to copy and share to repress), it's better that everyone can monitor everyone else freely, than only a select number can monitor everyone else.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 16 2018, @11:46PM
Neither corporations nor governments should be conducting mass surveillance on the populace, and it is up to The People to stop them from doing so. Take away all of their dangerous toys.
Information is easy to copy and share, but setting up enough hardware in the right locations to conduct mass surveillance on the populace is harder. That takes money, time, and resources, and can be noticed by anyone with a functioning brain. Mass surveillance should be banned, period.
I'd sooner blow my brains out than take part in your awful everyone-spies-on-everyone-else dystopia.