Facial recognition technology

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It is for computer ethics class. So I′m analyzing ethical issues with the technology of facial recognition. I already have done 2 pages (single spaced) of it and need 4 more pages (single spaced) to complete it.
Please read my paper first and then consider these ideas to carrying the paper forward:

An exploration of the racial biases, a deeper dive into the psychological effects of the surveillance facial recognition brings, and a more in depth juxtaposition of the rest of the worlds use of the technology with china

Some instruction from the professor:

A term paper can be up to 5 pages (excluding title page, references), single-spaced, single-column, and 11pt Times Roman font. Each page has a 1-inch margin on all sides. The first line of each paragraph must indent by 0.25in.
This format will be strictly enforced and failure to follow this format will result in a penalty up to 20% of the total grade of the term paper.

Thank you!

Facial Recognition

Facial Recognition is a fairly new technology that utilizes artificial intelligence and algorithms to identify people from their faces. This identification can be through photos, videos, and even live camera feeds. Facial recognition is a powerful, albeit controversial technology. While it has an incredible amount of utility, it has an equal number of potentially terrifying ethical and practical drawbacks. The most outlandish country in terms of its utility of facial recognition is China, where the technology is rampant and surveys the public more so than any other modern country. While there may be tangible benefits to their society, there are a number of questions that arise, including that of the line between privacy, safety, and freedom.

Firstly, an overview of how widespread facial recognition and the context of its use is important to consider before delving into and exploring the ethical dilemmas of its use. Of the ten most surveyed cities in the world, Chinese cities occupy eight of the top ten (csis). China has 54 percent of the world’s public surveillance cameras (comparitech). There is little choice but to be exposed to these cameras in China, as facial recognition software can determine a person’s identity even if they are wearing a face mask (csis). While there are currently attempts being made for self regulation by two of China’s largest technology companies, and a privacy protection act for its citizens, the trend is showing that the use of facial recognition is only growing and will not be going away any time soon in the country.

With how widespread this technology is in China and how loose the regulations are, the debate is no longer about if facial recognition should be used at all. Instead, it is a debate on how it should be used in an appropriate manner. Now there are certainly a select number of benefits that come with how widespread and accepted facial recognition is in the country. For one, life is more convenient in several aspects, including seamless check ins and hotels, flights, banks, and hospitals (LA times). There is also evidence to support that the general population approves of the use of facial recognition according to a Beijing research center. However, there are questions as to if this approval comes from the added conveniences in life, or perhaps it is a psychological phenomenon where its citizens feel innately safer with surveillance everywhere. Whatever the true answer may be, facts don’t lie, and the facts show that surveillance has no correlation with a decrease in crime (comparitech), Perhaps it is useful as a tool to combat civil unrest, but only time and more research will reveal why the majority of China is in approval of the technology.

While the list of benefits facial recognition brings to its citizens ends in a short and abrupt fashion, the list of dangers and detractions runs long. China’s new social score system for systems is shockingly Orwellian-esque, and would not be at all possibly without the existing surveillance infrastructure. Citizens are each allotted a cerain number of points. Then deductions are made for infractions such as traffic violations, or even jaywalking (wired). If a person’s social score gets too low the punishments are real. Low score getters can be banned from travel, be forced to pay fines, or even denied from certain universities or hotels. In the near future, the social credit system is only expected to grow more widespread and be more relevant in Chinese society.

Big Brother in China isn’t just limiting itself to the public sphere. There are reports that China plans to spy on their residents inside thier own homes. This means smart TVs, cellphones, and any cameras connected to the internet are all fair game (rfa). With so many people under the scrutiny of facial recognition, questions arise even aside from individual privacy rights from the government. For example, does this make China more vulnerable to foreign attacks? Afterall if the government is the one doing all the snooping, only one security network — the government’s — would need to be cracked in order to access all of the public’s data. And with so many people under the surveillance system, and with all the data being collected, it is only fair to wonder how fast the artificial intelligence must be learning and growing, making future possibilities more terrifying.

Facial recognition in China goes beyond just privacy concerns, it involves the direct livelihood of millions of people living in the country. Over 1 million Uighers are being held in over eighty internment camps in the country, partially thanks to facial recognition in the country (pbs). A letter sent to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo states that “China uses facial recognition to profile Uyghur individuals, classify them on the basis of their ethnicity, and single them out for tracking, mistreatment, and detention.” It’s “the largest mass incarceration of a minority population in the world today.” (cnet) Many in the US have concerns over facial recognition and its potential role in perpetuating racial biases, and China’s actions only confirm these fears.

This unfortunate situation with the Uighers is perhaps a nail in the coffin to the argument used often in these arguments over privacy concerns, “I have nothing to hide.” Yes, perhaps the people making those arguments have nothing to hide currently, and may perhaps never will have nothing to hide. But neither did the Uighers, and yet there is still mass incarceration. In the 1920’s the Jewish people in Europe had nothing to hide. Just years later they would need to hide, as their lives depended on it. If facial recognition existed in the early 1900’s, the devastation that occurred then may have been compounded.

Proponents of facial recognition outside of China might claim that these issues are exclusive to China, and that with the right regulations, their countries would be different. However, there is evidence to show the contrary, that in fact what China is doing might be the expectation for other countries in the future. In the United States, this future is already present in some areas of the country. The city of Baltimore is already flooded with surveillance cameras and flying drones, and “the city hasn’t yet acknowledged its existence” (Bloomberg). The lack of acknowledgement gives credence to the opinion that the city officials likely are well aware of the ethical concerns surrounding surviellance, and yet carry on with the execution of it. Sure, reviewing drone footage to find bank robbers or murderers is a net positive for a city, but what’s stopping these same drones from following peaceful protestors back home? Police departments love the newfound technology, touting the efficiency in fighting crime. However, as discussed earlier, no correlation between mass surveillance and the decrease in crime has been found.

While China doesn’t explicitly state it, their actions show that facial recognition may just be another tool to perpetuate the totalitarian state, and shut down all hints of any sort of revolution or pushback against the government. The use of censorship cannot be denied, even against what many view as petty things. For example, China banned the letter N of all things, albeit it was only a temporary ban (cnn). This is due to the fact that the letter N was used as a symbol for term limits on their president. Even more petty was China’s ban on Winnie the Pooh, all because the internet compared the look of president Xi to the childhood icon.

The last public display of revolt in China was over thirty years ago where the Tiananman massacre took place. To this day, China denies it ever happened (theguardian). This denial shows that China wants nothing to do with the image of civil unrest. They don’t want revolt to be even a concept, and now with facial recognition they have the power to squash dissent before it even gets close to the situation they had with Tiananman. With constant surveillance, there’s nothing stopping the current regime from eavesdropping on talk criticizing the government, and having the dissenter in their records through the unescapable cameras probing their every move. There’s nothing stopping the government from tapping into smartphones and TVs and doing what they want with the information they take. There’s nothing to stop the government, because there’s no one to stop the government, not with opposition being continually silenced and the damaging psychological ramifications of nationwide spying.