Facial recognition: It’s time for action

They aren't the industry leader, so leading the conversation on regulation helps them to impact the market leader.

It also let's them steer the conversation on regulation before it becomes a conversation occurring outside their control/influence.

Self-regulation is EXTREMELY common for both those reasons in the corporate world. It also never actually works as well as independent regulation, and when there are issues in independent regulation, it frequently occurs as a result of that independence being undermined/corrupted by revolving doors/lobbying/etc.

It's a nice press release, and smart on Microsoft's part, but don't fool yourself into thinking it's not in their self-interest to be doing this. To date, I don't think I can recall any instance of a public corporation acting against its own self-interest for moral reasons.

I find it downright scary when corporations take shortsighted and immoral positions like that. It is historically very clear there are consequences to our work as engineers and companies developing and supplying technology. It is very important to know that we share responsibility for how our work is used starting from the moment we reasonably understand how it is being used.

I mean, there are engineers who designed and built the gas chambers in the second world war. Were they responsible for the murders that were committed with it? Or is only the one turning the wheels responsible? Or the one who was in command? Or his boss higher up? I think everyone who knew was partly responsible, including the engineers.

It also has also been proven that is is really easy to coerce people (including engineers) into doing immoral things. It is easy to deny any responsibility when it is someone else telling/ordering you to do things. But it does not clear you of responsibility for your actions.

I think Microsoft is doing the right thing now, they have come to realize their technology can easily be abused in ways they did not foresee (this probably already happened), and they try to take responsibility by speaking out and lobbying to get legislation in place to avoid abuse, but without destroying the market opportunity.

Tragically, I expect several things:

- There will be no government legislation / "red tape", certainly not from the current US government.

- The race to the bottom they are afraid of will happen anyway, and Microsoft gets to choose whether they want to be part of it or not. Their morals (now out in the open) will work against their chances of market success.

- What Microsoft asks for is still far to weak. They want to take the moral high-ground, but they also want to sell their stuff. For instance, they ask for clear signage in stores that facial recognition is being used, so that customers can choose not to enter the store. Do they really think this will provide good privacy protection? Business will simply strong-arm consumers into consent by denying service if they don't, just like they did with the old EU privacy directive (cookie law).

- In the EU, GDPR is already providing consumer protection against facial recognition, mostly better that what Microsoft is asking for. Business in EU are now effectively prohibited from using it, but US based startups will use their lead to "disrupt" the market and introduce it here anyway.