The whole point of modern surveillance is to differentiate between people so that everyone can be treated differently. Facial recognition technologies are only a small part of a total surveillance system
Essay author - Bruce Schneier, American cryptographer, writer and information security specialist. Member of the board of directors of the International Association for Cryptological Research and member of the advisory board of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. The essay was published on January 20, 2020 on the author’s blog and in the newspaper .
Communities of concerned citizens across the United States are beginning to ban facial recognition technologies. They were banned in May last year. , soon followed by the neighboring one and и in Massachusetts (the ban may be extended ). In December, San Diego suspended its facial recognition program ahead of the new law taking effect. Forty largest music festivals do not use this technology, but calling for a nationwide ban. Many Democratic presidential candidates for face recognition.
These efforts are well-intentioned, but banning facial recognition is the wrong answer to the problem of modern surveillance. Focusing on one particular method of identification distracts from the nature of the surveillance society we are building, where widespread mass surveillance is becoming the norm. In countries like China, the government creates a total surveillance infrastructure to control society. In countries like the United States, it is created by corporations to influence purchasing behavior, and at the same time used by the government.
In all cases, modern mass surveillance has three main components:
- identification;
- correlation;
- discrimination.
Let's consider them in turn.
Facial recognition is a technology that can be used to identify people without their knowledge or consent. It relies on the prevalence of surveillance cameras, which are becoming more powerful and compact, and machine learning technologies that can match footage with images from a database of existing photographs.
But this is just one of many identification methods. People can be identified from a distance by or using a laser system. Cameras so good they can read и from a distance of several meters. And even without all these technologies, we can always be identified, because our smartphones unique MAC addresses. We are identified by telephone numbers, credit card numbers, car license plates. For example, China for its total surveillance system .
Once we are identified, data about our identity and activities can be correlated with other data collected at other times. This could be movement data to “track” a person throughout the day. Or data about purchases, web browsing, and who we communicate with via email or chats. This could include information about our income, ethnicity, lifestyle, profession and interests. There is an entire industry of data brokers who make their living analyzing and about who we are - using surveillance data collected by all kinds of companies that are sold to brokers without our knowledge or consent.
The United States has a huge—and almost entirely unregulated—industry of data brokers that trade on our personal information. This is how big internet companies like Google and Facebook make money. It's not just about identification. The main thing is that they are able to create deep profiles on everyone, collecting information about us and our interests and maximizing these profiles. This is why many companies from state authorities. That's why companies buy medical records, which is partly why Google along with all its data.
The whole purpose of this process is so that companies - and governments - can differentiate between people and treat them differently. People are shown different ads on the Internet and offered different rates for credit cards. display different advertisements depending on your profile. In the future, we may be automatically recognized when entering a store, just as we are now when entering a website.
It doesn't matter what technology is used to identify people. The fact that a comprehensive database of heartbeats or gaits does not currently exist does not make data collection technologies any less effective. And in most cases, the connection between the ID and the real name does not matter. It is important that we can be consistently identified over time. We can be completely anonymous in a system that and tracks his actions on the Internet, but this does not at all interfere with similar processes of correlation and discrimination. It's the same with faces. You can track our movements around a store or shopping center even without being tied to a specific name. And this anonymity is fragile: as soon as we buy something with a bank card, suddenly our real names are attached to what was an anonymous tracking profile.
To regulate this system, all three stages of the surveillance process must be taken into account. The ban on facial recognition will make no difference if CCTV systems switch to identifying people using smartphone MAC addresses. The problem is that we are being identified without our knowledge or consent, and society needs rules about when this is acceptable and when it is not.
Likewise, we need rules on how our data can be combined with other data and then bought and sold without our knowledge or consent. The data broker industry is almost completely unregulated; there is only one law—passed in Vermont in 2018—that requires data brokers to register and explain in general terms what data they collect. Major internet surveillance companies like Facebook and Google have more detailed files on us than the intelligence agencies of any 20th century police state. Reasonable laws will help prevent the worst of their abuses.
Finally, we need clearer rules on when and how companies can discriminate. Discrimination based on protected characteristics such as race and sex is already illegal, but these rules are ineffective against modern surveillance and control technologies. When people can be identified and their data matched at a speed and scale never seen before, we need new rules.
Facial recognition systems have taken the brunt of criticism today, but banning them misses the point. We need to seriously talk about all the technologies of identification, correlation and discrimination. We as a society must decide whether such spying by governments and corporations will be tolerated—and how we want them to influence our lives.
Source: habr.com