SoylentNews

takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

Google contractors reportedly targeted homeless people for Pixel 4 facial recognition [theverge.com]

In July, Google admitted [theverge.com] it has employees pounding the pavement in a variety of US cities, looking for people willing to sell their facial data for a $5 gift certificate to help improve the Pixel 4's face unlock system [theverge.com]. But the New York Daily News reports [nydailynews.com] that a Google contractor may be using some questionable methods to get those facial scans, including targeting groups of homeless people and tricking college students who didn't know they were being recorded.

According to several sources who allegedly worked on the project, a contracting agency named Randstad sent teams to Atlanta explicitly to target homeless people and those with dark skin, often without saying they were working for Google, and without letting on that they were actually recording people's faces.

Google wasn't necessarily aware that Randstad was going after homeless people, but a Google manager reportedly did instruct the group to target people with darker skin, one source told the Daily News.

Also at Android Central [androidcentral.com].

Original Submission