Companies Using Facial Recognition Need to Follow Ethical Standards: Lawmakers

Facial recognition technology, unbeknownst to citizens, is used in a variety of public settings, but some U.S. lawmakers say that the technology should not be deployed freely until security, privacy, and accuracy concerns can be mitigated and civil liberties guaranteed. The House Committee on Oversight and Reform held a hearing on the use of facial recognition (FR) technology on Wednesday, the third in a three-part series. The hearings are an effort to understand the scope of how private and public companies are using this technology, so these companies can be held accountable to ethical standards. The use of facial recognition technology is increasing. It can be found in home security systems, social media sites, sports arenas, and elsewhere for advertising, security, access, photo, and video data identification, and accessibility. Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-Mich.) introduced HR153, which addresses the need for the development of guidelines for the ethical development of transparency and ethics in the AI systems processes, and the implications of it. Lawrence said that currently there are no checks on how and when the technology is used, and what companies are doing with the data. “Right now, we have the wild, wild west when it comes to AI,” she said. Lawrence’s bill addresses the fact that artificial intelligence isn’t the only emerging technology that requires the development of ethical guidelines; the same concerns exist for facial recognition technology.