It might surprise you that of all the democracies in the world, Australia is the only one using widespread “faceprint” tracking. The use of this technology is raising fears about privacy, but some optimistic thinkers believe that Australia could become a leader in regulating faceprint tracking use.
How does Australia use the technology? If a person in Western Australia gets Covid-19, they must quarantine for seven days. The police can check their whereabouts by sending text messages and require a selfie to be sent back to them within 15 minutes. The police then use facial recognition technology and GPS to determine if the person who took the selfie is at home. If they are not, they can quickly follow up with a knock on the door and, potentially, a fine.
Australia is the only democracy that uses facial recognition technology to stop the spread of Covid-19. Most other western countries are against the idea of such surveillance. The BBC’s Jessica Mudditt reports that not only do many major cities have moratoriums against facial recognition technology, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, and Google have also said they will not sell their facial recognition algorithms to law enforcement agencies. Meta has also said that Facebook would delete one billion “faceprints” and cease using the technology to tag people in photos.
The “Australian Human Rights Commission”, which is an independent third party that investigates complaints about human rights breaches, has asked for Australia to stop using the technology until it has a law to regulate faceprint tracking. Human rights advocates and campaigners say there is potential for the personal data that was collected to be used for purposes other than controlling Covid-19. That could eventually lead to Australia becoming a surveillance state.
Leila Nashashibi works for the advocacy group “Fight for the Future”, whose goal is to try to achieve a federal ban on facial recognition. She says, “like nuclear energy and biological weapons, facial recognition poses a threat to human society…that far outweigh any potential benefits…it enables automated and ubiquitous monitoring of entire populations, and it can be nearly impossible to avoid. As it spreads, people will be too afraid to participate in social movements and political demonstrations. Free speech will be chilled.”
Article Link: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220616-the-nation-where-your-faceprint-is-already-being-tracked
How does Australia use the technology? If a person in Western Australia gets Covid-19, they must quarantine for seven days. The police can check their whereabouts by sending text messages and require a selfie to be sent back to them within 15 minutes. The police then use facial recognition technology and GPS to determine if the person who took the selfie is at home. If they are not, they can quickly follow up with a knock on the door and, potentially, a fine.
Australia is the only democracy that uses facial recognition technology to stop the spread of Covid-19. Most other western countries are against the idea of such surveillance. The BBC’s Jessica Mudditt reports that not only do many major cities have moratoriums against facial recognition technology, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, and Google have also said they will not sell their facial recognition algorithms to law enforcement agencies. Meta has also said that Facebook would delete one billion “faceprints” and cease using the technology to tag people in photos.
The “Australian Human Rights Commission”, which is an independent third party that investigates complaints about human rights breaches, has asked for Australia to stop using the technology until it has a law to regulate faceprint tracking. Human rights advocates and campaigners say there is potential for the personal data that was collected to be used for purposes other than controlling Covid-19. That could eventually lead to Australia becoming a surveillance state.
Leila Nashashibi works for the advocacy group “Fight for the Future”, whose goal is to try to achieve a federal ban on facial recognition. She says, “like nuclear energy and biological weapons, facial recognition poses a threat to human society…that far outweigh any potential benefits…it enables automated and ubiquitous monitoring of entire populations, and it can be nearly impossible to avoid. As it spreads, people will be too afraid to participate in social movements and political demonstrations. Free speech will be chilled.”
Article Link: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220616-the-nation-where-your-faceprint-is-already-being-tracked
