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Facial recognition: It’s time for action

blogs.microsoft.com

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Re: Facial recognition: It’s time for action

#271

Post by geephroh »

DavidSJ wrote: post #208
geephroh wrote: post #11

This is a laudable first step in advocacy for real regulation of a technology that already has huge impacts on privacy and civil society. I was in the room for one of the meetings with Microsoft's senior leadership as a representative of a Seattle-based civil liberties group. While our coalition would like to see MS go further, it was quite clear that they take their commitment to corporate responsibility and ethics…

If you’re willing to share, why were you meeting with Amazon’s general counsel?

My group is part of a coalition organized by the Washington chapter of the ACLU. We have been engaging both Microsoft and Amazon about their surveillance technologies and AI/ML offerings. ACLU-WA, in collaboration with the Northern CA chapter of the ACLU were largely responsible for the well-publicized test of Amazon’s Rekognition using photos of members of Congress against criminal mugshot databases.[1]

[1] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/07/amazons-rekognit...

Re: Facial recognition: It’s time for action

#272

Post by efreak »

crawfordcomeaux wrote: post #201
phkahler wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> when we connect that AI to the rest of the computer capabilities out there it quickly becomes something a human couldn't do. Connecting the AI face recognizer to the cloud or any other system is exactly where the line needs to be.

Disagree. This is a technology that can be secretly or openly deployed in businesses for the sake of emotional exploitation via dynamic displays targeting specific emotional states. I'm against turning the world into anymore of an emotional hunting ground than it naturally is. http://eqradio.csail.mi.edu

Dead link? I'm on mobile if that makes a difference.

Re: Facial recognition: It’s time for action

#273

Post by steelframe »

janesvilleseo wrote: post #216
steelframe wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He also denied that Amazon had any responsibility for the negative impacts of their AI/ML technologies, or role to play in industry efforts to self-regulate. As someone who's worked in the tech sector in the Seattle area for over a decade, I could have told you that would happen. One of Amazon's core values is minimizing expense -- it's baked into their DNA. It doesn't matter what the issue is. If it costs Amazon m…

Class action lawsuits can cost a lot of money. If the system is found to be biased there may be grounds to sue. Lots of potential problems can arise. I wonder how they bake those into their DNA?

The employees have a term for that: "Frupid."

Re: Facial recognition: It’s time for action

#274

Post by bbddg »

j4kp07 wrote: post #81
bbddg wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's almost as if workers should own and control the means of production.

There is absolutely nothing stopping you and your friends from starting such a company. I won't be holding my breath as you start on your new venture.

Nothing holding anyone back except pesky things like paying rent and buying food.

Re: Facial recognition: It’s time for action

#275

Post by notjoemama »

bsenftner wrote: post #258
mLuby wrote: post #154

Think about the participants in a facial recognition system: - Targets (people) - Enablers (tech companies) - Stalkers (consumer companies) - Big Brother (governments) Notably the only ones who cannot use the system are the Targets, because they don't have the necessary scale. Being part of a system you can't use is typically to your detriment.

FR is not out of reach for ordinary people. The algorithm of choice by the NSA is available as a cost of about $1200 per seat, and it only needs an ordinary PC to operate. This is no longer rocket science...

"$1200...ordinary people...needs an ordinary PC"

I'm guessing you had the US or Europe in mind rather than other parts of the world like Argentina, Uganda, China and India. (ignoring the omission of scale)

Re: Facial recognition: It’s time for action

#277

Post by cwillu »

hbbio wrote: post #56
seanf wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My gym also uses facial recognition, but does it via a person sitting behind a desk checking that my member ID matches my face. I don't think many people are uncomfortable with this process, and this biometric method has been used for a long time.

Yes, but there are few chances that the person sitting behind the deck will be the target of a brain cyberattack!

What exactly do you think phishing is?

Re: Facial recognition: It’s time for action

#278

Post by Maarten88 »

pmontra wrote: post #264
Maarten88 wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He also denied that Amazon had any responsibility for the negative impacts of their AI/ML technologies 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…

> US based startups will use their lead to "disrupt" the market and introduce it here anyway. How exactly? Maybe lobbying for relaxing the law? I think that maybe shopping centers and similar businesses could lobby for facial recognition. I hope both of them don't succeed.

You could design from the ground up and create a retail concept that is based on customer recognition and automatic checkout, using some form of membership that includes consent; I think that would be allowed under GDPR as using it in this way is a clear choice that can be freely made.

Also there is the option of "growth hacking" and "legal marketing", aka just doing it illegally (with some faux activism story behind it) and seeing what happens. The government here is not really actively enforcing GDPR, so you can probably get away ignoring it for quite some time, flying under the radar if you are small, like most website publishers do too.

Re: Facial recognition: It’s time for action

#279

Post by crawfordcomeaux »

efreak wrote: post #272
crawfordcomeaux wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree. This is a technology that can be secretly or openly deployed in businesses for the sake of emotional exploitation via dynamic displays targeting specific emotional states. I'm against turning the world into anymore of an emotional hunting ground than it naturally is. http://eqradio.csail.mi.edu

Dead link? I'm on mobile if that makes a difference.

Fixed link

http://eqradio.csail.mit.edu/

Re: Facial recognition: It’s time for action

#280

Post by crawfordcomeaux »

phkahler wrote: post #253
crawfordcomeaux wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree. This is a technology that can be secretly or openly deployed in businesses for the sake of emotional exploitation via dynamic displays targeting specific emotional states. I'm against turning the world into anymore of an emotional hunting ground than it naturally is. http://eqradio.csail.mi.edu

You may have just convinced me that this technology needs to be banned outright.

If we rely on the law for protection, we're doomed. This calls for much harder and higher action:

We need a framework for programming ourselves so as to be able to systematically protect ourselves at emotional, mental, and spiritual levels.

Further, any system incentivizing such emotional exploitation needs to leave now. I'm looking at you, capitalism.

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