As protests against police brutality and systemic racism continue around the globe, there's been a growing discussion around the importance of blurring images from these protests before posting them online. After all, as John Oliver points out in the Last Week Tonight video above, "there are currently serious concerns that facial recognition is being used to identify Black Lives Matter protesters."
Oliver follows that up with a 20-minute deep dive into the dangers of the technology, including ethical concerns, the companies harvesting our photos to sell to law enforcement agencies, and the fact that facial recognition can be biased and inaccurate (studies have even found that it's more likely to misidentify people of colour than white people, for instance).
"Clearly, what we really need to do is put limits on how this technology can be used, and some locations have laws in place already," says Oliver. "San Francisco banned facial recognition last year. But the scope of that is limited to city law enforcement; it doesn't affect state and federal use, or private companies. Meanwhile, Illinois has a law requiring companies to obtain written permission before collecting a person's fingerprints, facial scans or other identifying biological characteristics — and that is good.
"But we also need a comprehensive, nationwide policy, and we need it right now."
