Is facial recognition the best way to provide security to protect the community? Facial recognition software claims it is meant to improve security by watching us through our phones cameras and surveilling our computers, all to document our faces in a database. However, all it is doing is stereotyping and misidentifying us based on misguided conclusions. These human rights violations are taking place only to predicting if we will (or have) commit a crime or to assume our sexual orientations, how revolutionary! Facial Recognition is an intrusive act that completely disregards our rights and privacy.

Chinese authorities are looking into predictive analytics to help authorities stop suspects before a crime is committed. They are tapping on facial recognition tech, and combining that with “predictive intelligence” to notify police of potential criminals, based on their behavior patterns. Their face recognition technology also is being used to unlock phones, hack computers, and to identify immigrants. While this technology may seem convenient and helpful to those who feel they have nothing to hide, face recognition is something everyone should fear. In the United States, Police databases now feature the faces of nearly half of Americans, most of whom have no idea their image is there.

This invasive technology violates citizens’ constitutional rights and is subject to an alarming level of manipulation and bias. We should not be put on display for the entire government to surveil, only to satisfy their own stereotypes. We deserve privacy and respect, especially from the people who serve us.