New technology advances are being made that are invading the personal freedoms that were granted to us by the Constitution. Imagine this, you are casually walking through the mall and unbeknownst to you a scan is being made. A couple of steps further and you are looking at an advertising display that shows products geared specifically to you. Or, Click! Someone with a smart phone just took your picture which they can upload to find out more information about you. How about being identified by those surveillance cameras that are surreptitiously placed throughout myriad public places? These technologies are neither science fiction nor fantasy; some are currently being used while others are being tested for widespread use in the very near future. With today’s advancements in facial recognition technology people are being identified without their knowledge or consent. Facial recognition technology can be beneficial in certain circumstances such as criminal justice and security; however, it is currently being used in a wide variety of contexts without our knowledge and consequently our consent. As technological advances move at a rapid pace and end-user awareness, and ethical considerations lag dramatically behind, we need to work to keep better pace. With facial recognition technology, our personal privacy is at stake.
Companies that have started using this new technology are trying to increase business, according to an article printed on October 7, 2011 called Advertisers Start Using Facial Recognition to Tailor Pitches. Kraft Foods Inc. plans on starting the use of this technology in the near future to increase their sales. Kraft Company’s vice president of retail experience, Donald King, said, “If it recognizes that there is a female between 25 to 29 standing there, it may surmise that you are more likely to have minor children at home and give suggestions on how to spice up Kraft Macaroni& Cheese for the kids.” Another company interested in starting the use of recognition technology is Adidas. Adidas is planning to use this technology so, “if a woman in her 50s walks by and stops, 60% of the shoes displayed will be for females in her age bracket, while the other 40% will be a random sprinkling of other goods.” “If a retailer can offer the right products quickly, people are more likely to buy something,” said Chris Aubrey, vice president of global retail marketing for Adidas.
An additional potentially intrusive software that has been made from this facial recognition technology, is the ability to take a picture of someone on a mobile phone and then enter the picture into a web search. Within seconds, the search can yield pictures and other identifying information about the person whose picture was taken. This technology, which has not yet been approved for marketing, allows people to be able to find information about anyone else without their knowledge or consent. Although this was withheld now, in a few years this technology may be opened to everyone. Facial recognition technology needs to be regulated so people do not use this technology in potentially harmful ways. Although this technology can be helpful to both law enforcement and airport security, as it can help people be identified, these are the only potentially positive uses that could come of the development of this technology.
http://www.studentnewsdaily.com/daily-news-article/advertisers-start-using-facial-recognition-to-tailor-pitches
http://articles.cnn.com/2010-07-09/tech/face.recognition.facebook_1_facial-recognition-face-recognition-facebook/3?_s=PM:TECH
I find that this facial recognition technology could be beneficial to some people, as long as it is used in the right ways. For example, as Valerie had mentioned, if it is used by Adidas to find the right shoes for someone or Kraft to “spice up” macaroni and cheese for kids, it is a reasonable buy. However, if it were to be used in the matter of stalking or finding out information on someone, it could become out of hand. I think the reason for not publicizing this facial recognition technology is for that reason alone, so it is not manipulated. I feel as though it is something that is not necessary for anyone. Even though companies like Adidas and Kraft will use it to help people, at this moment, they do not necessarily need help. Yes, it could help Adidas find a type of shoe that fits a 50-year-old female faster, but they have been helping manually for so long that I think people are becoming lazy. Technology is here to help people function easily in their daily lives by reading on the go (kindle) or having apps on a phone to navigate you places. Specific technology can be useful to people, but sometimes I feel as though some technology is being developed because we are becoming more lazy. What about when people used to buy books from Barnes and Noble? What about when people used a phone just to call others? It is amazing how far we have come with our technology, but creating a technology that is able to read a person is going too far.
ReplyDeleteI think our world today is becoming more and more technologically based. The facial recognition technology may help catch criminals, but ultimately it is disturbing our right to privacy. Although it may be nice to find the perfect Adidas shoe for you, this sort of technology could unemploy thousands of people by replacing them. What would this do to help the growing rate of poverty and unemployment in our nation? You wouldn’t need 10 people working at a time if you had the facial technology find the right shoe and just had a couple people going to fetch them. If it is the perfect shoe, then this shoe fetching would only have to be done once and the customer could check out in minutes rather than hours. The percentage of poverty in America is 15.1% and I don’t think we should risk this by replacing our workers.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with amy in that this technology advancement can be very beneficial if used n the right ways by the right people. In the world of business, people and companies are always trying to get ahead of their competitors and this just might be the next big way to do it. As a consumer, I can see why companies would want to use a technology like that because I personally would want to know what does each store have for me and can give me that others can't. For reasons other than business though I don't think that this type of technology is appropriate except for security. It would be very useful if these cameras could identify people because that would serve as good evidence against crimes and would probably lead to less and less crime. A problem then becomes the storage of all this data that is getting collected. If this technology were to become more common then I think a plan f where the data should go would definitely be in order.
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