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Resisting Facial Recognition

Three campaigns to watch out for (and sign up) !

By Francesca Scapolo

April 24, 2021

The rise of facial recognition technology

In 2019, media outlets worldwide published articles describing what was happening in Hong Kong, where people were protesting in response to the introduction of the Fugitive Offenders amendment bill by the Hong Kong government. One detail sparked a lot of attention: law enforcement authorities used artificial intelligence software that can match faces from video footage to police databases to track down protesters. Coincidentally, facial recognition technology and information on its deployment in urban spaces also popped up in the news in London, where the private owner of the newly redeveloped site located near King's Cross Station was found to be using a biometric surveillance system to track random pedestrians. 

Face recognition is used to identify or verify the identity of an individual using their face. These systems use algorithms trained to pick out distinctive details about a person’s face, such as distance between the eyes or shape of the chin, which are then converted into mathematical representations and, finally, compared to data available in a face recognition database. 

Scary, eh? Imagine you are walking to go to your favourite place to grab a coffee, and while doing that, your face is captured by a camera placed just next to the building you are passing by. In the precise instant, your face is scanned, and a system is working to match it with your local police database to find out if you are a criminal. You might don't see any problem with this; after all, you didn't do anything wrong, right?

Well, multiple research found that the accuracy percentage is relatively low (95% inaccurate!), and it further decreases when it comes to black people. This is as a result of it being usually trained on Caucasian faces, which then result in systematically misidentifying and mislabelling racialized individuals. The technology reflects and further builds on long-standing social divisions that are deeply intertwined with racism, sexism, homophobia, colonialism and other forms of structural oppression. Also, the full extent of the discrimination created by facial recognition system is still largely unknown (The use of live facial recognition technology by law enforcement in public places, 2019). 

Three campaigns to follow (and sign!)

Recently more and more organisations have taken a stand against facial recognition, stressing how this violates people's human rights. Campaigns have been launched to ask governments and local authorities to ban the use of such technology worldwide. We decided to list some we think it is worth watching out for (and that you might want to sign): 

• Reclaim Your Face: launched by EDRi to ban facial recognition technologies in Europe launched in February 2021, which count more than 30 organisations involved all over Europe already 28,000 signatures! The campaign calls the European Commission to strictly regulate the use of biometric technologies to avoid undue interference with fundamental rights. In particular, they ask the Commission to prohibit, in law and practice, indiscriminate or arbitrarily targeted uses of biometrics which can lead to unlawful mass surveillance. More available at https://reclaimyourface.eu/
• Stop Facial Recognition: launched by the London-based NGO Big Brother Watch, this campaign aims to ban the expansion of live facial recognition surveillance in the UK since the first police trials. Backed by over 25 rights groups, academics, lawyers and MPs from across major parties in the UK, they are fighting to urgently stop facial recognition surveillance being used in our public spaces, whether by police or private companies. More available at https://bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/campaigns/stop-facial-recognition/
• Ban the Scan: launched by Amnesty International, this campaign calls governments and federal authorities in the US to ban facial recognition technologies in both public and private spaces. You can also find Fight for the Future’s interactive map of facial recognition use and ban efforts across the United States on the website. More available at https://banthescan.amnesty.org/ 

Last but not least

In addition to these, the European Commission is due to publish a new "European approach for artificial intelligence" with more indications on the use of facial recognition technologies in April 2021. We hope to see their call to ban facial recognition systems everywhere in Europe, following the examples of cities such as San Francisco and Boston that already took a stand against mass surveillance and human rights violations.