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Facial Recognition is a Threat
to Your Privacy:

A Top Privacy
Issue of Our Time

San Diego, CA, August 25,
2011 –
Imagine you’re walking down the street and a stranger snaps
your photo with his smartphone. He uses a facial recognition app and within
minutes, he knows your name, age, where you were born, and your Social Security
number. Think it’s a scene from the movie Minority
Report? Think again.

It’s Possible.

Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University combined three
technologies – facial recognition software, cloud computing, and social
networks – to identify people both online and offline. The team performed three
separate experiments:

1. People using pseudonyms on an online dating site were
   identified by comparing Facebook profile photos, which are publicly displayed,
   to the profiles on the dating site. Using facial recognition software to match
   up the photos, 10 percent of the dating site’s users were identified.
   
   
2. Students walking on campus were identified by comparing
   real-time photos taken with a webcam to Facebook profile photos. The facial
   recognition software identified the students 31 percent of the time.
   
   
3. Using only a photo of a person’s face and information
   publicly available online, the researchers figured out the person’s birth date,
   personal interests, and Social Security number.

Many individuals share a tremendous amount of information about
themselves online. As facial recognition software improves, it will inevitably
be easier to link this personal information to you just by taking your photo.

The Threat to Your
Privacy.

Facial recognition technology – especially as the technology
becomes more sophisticated – may be one of the gravest privacy threats of our
time. It has the potential to remove the anonymity we expect in crowds and most
public places. There are the obvious “chilling effects” it could have on
political demonstrations and speech, concerns being monitored by civil
liberties advocates like the ACLU,
EPIC, and EFF.  However, this technology will also very
likely be used in greater capacity in the commercial sector to further target
consumers for advertising and discriminatory pricing purposes.

According to
an article published recently by the Los Angeles Times, several companies
have already launched, or plan to launch soon, facial recognition technology
that will be used for in-store digital displays and kiosks to make product
suggestions based on the demographics gleaned from your face.  This might include your sex, your age range,
and your race or ethnicity.  

However, the article fails to mention the possibility that
facial recognition software will likely be used for more than demographic
targeting. In his book Niche
Envy, Joseph Turow, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, explains
how companies are using increasingly sophisticated market segmentation methods
to offer different prices to different people, a practice known as price
discrimination. The more detailed the profile a company can build on you, the
more accurately it can estimate how much you are willing to spend on a product.

Professor Turow focused primarily on online data collection,
but as the Carnegie Mellon study illustrates, facial recognition technology
makes it possible to connect your offline identity with your online identity
without necessarily obtaining your consent. This may allow for price
discrimination the moment you walk into a store. As facial recognition
technology advances and the number of consumers using social media continues to
increase, it’s not far-fetched to imagine a scenario where, for example, the
kiosk mentioned above identifies you based on information found online. What if
you then receive not only product recommendations, but also prices for those
products based on who it thinks you are? The possibility of such applications for
facial recognition technology are disturbing, to say the least. 

What You Can Do.

We believe  individuals must have control over their personal
information.  This includes who has your
information, how it is kept, and what can be done with it.
 Facial recognition software can enable companies
to identify and target you without your knowledge or permission. Privacy laws
in the U.S. have not kept pace with technology, and we are aware of no laws specifically
governing commercial use of facial recognition technology.  This is unless, of course, a company states
in a privacy policy that it does not use this technology when in fact it does.

Here are three things you can do to fight for your privacy:

1. Educate yourself. The most important thing you can do is learn
   more about the technology and its privacy implications, so that you are an
   educated and informed consumer. To stay abreast of facial recognition and other
   emerging privacy issues, visit our
   Privacy Today webpage.
   
   
2. Support legislation that defends privacy. Write to your elected representatives
   to ask for stronger privacy protections against facial recognition
   technology and other emergent technologies that you believe may be used to
   invade your privacy. Many privacy laws are created on the state level, so stay
   informed and vote for better privacy protection.
   
   
3. Avoid companies with poor privacy practices. When possible,
   don't do business with companies that you believe collect unnecessary
   personal information or fail to protect that information. Take your money
   elsewhere - and let the companies know why.

You can also see this alert on our website at http://www.privacyrights.org/facial-recognition-threat-to-your-privacy-2011.

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GOD'S WORD FOR TODAY
Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. ACTS 2:38 (KJV)