How does facial recognition technology threaten privacy?
One threat is the fact that facial recognition, in combination with wider use of video surveillance, would be likely to grow increasingly invasive over time. Once installed, this kind of a surveillance system rarely remains confined to its original purpose. New ways of using it suggest themselves, the authorities or operators find them to be an irresistible expansion of their power, and citizens’ privacy suffers another blow. Ultimately, the threat is that widespread surveillance will change the character, feel, and quality of American life. Another problem is the threat of abuse. The use of facial recognition in public places like airports depends on widespread video monitoring, an intrusive form of surveillance that can record in graphic detail personal and private behavior. And experience tells us that video monitoring will be misused. Video camera systems are operated by humans, after all, who bring to the job all their existing prejudices and biases. In Great Britain, for example,
