I don’t want to walk out of my house fearing that I’m being watched. Before this whole talk of facial recognition began, I already felt that the government was being too intrusive and felt as if I could be watched at any time, so this isn’t making anything better. The overuse of facial recognition is overstepping people’s right to anonymity in public and privacy. The police have nearly half of american’s faces in their systems and they are not even aware, which is prone to a lot of manipulation on the government’s end. After all, the key to a strong government is their ability to have loyal citizens without the use of ear, and using facial recognition is definitely triggering fear in American citizens. Knowing that there is a database with over 10 million people’s faces for the purpose of facial recognition purposes does not make me feel safe or comfortable in the slightest. I also can say that most people would not be okay knowing their faces are stored with other people with access at any time.
Even though this very invasive technology can be very accurate and scary, there are many ways to help avoid being victim of facial recognition. Taking care of where photos are uploaded and being careful where your face is delivered to, whether it be through photo or video, is very important. Avoiding facial recognition online is only half the battle, however. In the end, it is hard to escape this technology unless you wear some sort of face covering sheet or have long hair that covers your most notable facial features. The technology is accurate 99% of the time with white males but only 35% with darker skinned women, so its a gamble. In order to completely avoid this technology, you basically need to be covering your face at all times in public, which is insane. In other words, facial recognition could destroy everyone’s privacy forever.