Facial Recognition Technology’s Pervasive Role in American Life

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 24 May 2021

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Facial recognition software has become a common part of American life. It’s used by government employment agencies to verify an applicant’s identity, by landlords to monitor tenants, and by police in their investigations, which has resulted in some wrongful arrests. Indeed, studies show that facial recognition algorithms are often inaccurate when it comes to identifying women and people with dark skin tones. Privacy advocates concerned by how law enforcement has used surveillance technology cheered Amazon’s recent decision to extend a moratorium on police use of its facial recognition software, though Amazon gave no reason why it was doing so. We’ll talk to Bay Area experts about how facial recognition technology is being used, why it needs to be closely monitored, and what cities, states and the federal government are doing, or not doing, to regulate its use. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:32.2	From KQED Public Radio in San Francisco, this is for. I'm Rachel Myro.
0:49.5	Facial recognition technology is becoming commonplace.
0:53.7	From face ID on phones to security at airports,
0:57.1	our faces are regularly scanned to verify who we are. But not all software is created equal. And
1:04.0	studies have shown human error creeps in, either in the way the software is trained or the way
1:09.5	it's used, ways that often end up harming people of color.
1:13.7	Companies all over the world are selling facial recognition software
1:17.1	to law enforcement agencies and others,
1:20.0	often in places where there are no or few regulatory limits.
1:23.9	That's what we'll be talking about next on form right after this.
1:33.9	Welcome to Forum. I'm Rachel Myro. Facial recognition software is used by government
1:39.9	employment agencies to verify an applicant's identity, by landlords to monitor tenants,
1:46.5	by law enforcement, to identify and prosecute suspected criminals. But what happens when the
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