Tuesday, January 24, 2023

From our 'Technology Gone Wrong' department: (Part 2): Axios illustrates how facial recognition's rapid adoption has exposed alarming pitfalls..."Driving the news: A Black man was recently jailed for almost a week in Georgia after a facial recognition system incorrectly matched his face with a suspect in a New Orleans robbery, his lawyer told The New Orleans Advocate. The man — who said he's never been to Louisiana — was released after detectives realized their mistake, The Advocate reports. Facial recognition technology has led to at least three prior false arrests— all involving Black men, Wired reported last year. The technology has long been faulted for failures to accurately identify Black faces."


PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "What we're watching: Several federal lawmakers have introduced bills meant to curtail the use of facial recognition tech nationwide. The proposals have yet to advance. What's next: On a technological level, facial recognition tech will only keep improving — University of Georgia researchers are working on a system that works based solely on the shape of people's ears. Expect surveillance-based facial recognition to proliferate despite efficacy and ethics concerns, especially in high-security areas. The Transportation Security Administration is testing the tech at major airports."

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POST: "Facial recognition's rapid adoption exposes alarming pitfalls," by Alex Fitzpatrick, published by Axios, on January 0000, 2023.   (We launched Axios in January 2017 based on this shared belief: The world needed smarter, more efficient coverage of the topics shaping the fast-changing world. We pledged to put our audience first, always.  We met our promise and offered an antidote to this madness. Now, we are focusing our minds and manpower on a much bigger problem faced by all consumers: the erosion of truth, trust, safety and sanity in news. This is an existential threat to our democracy. It will require extraordinary effort by us and others to correct.")


GIST: "The breakneck development and deployment of facial recognition technology are outstripping efforts to corral alarming pitfalls.


Why it matters: Police, retail stores, airports and sports arenas are rapidly increasing biometric surveillance. But critics say the results are too often blindly trusted, without enough double-checking of matches.


Catch up quick: The latest face-recognition surveillance technology is designed to identify people seen on security cameras in real-time, or close to it.

  • It aims to match security camera footage of someone with images tied to that person's identity and kept in various databases or publicly available online, such as police mugshots or social media profiles.

  • Facial recognition also lets you unlock smartphones and tablets without a password.

Driving the news: A Black man was recently jailed for almost a week in Georgia after a facial recognition system incorrectly matched his face with a suspect in a New Orleans robbery, his lawyer told The New Orleans Advocate.

  • The man — who said he's never been to Louisiana — was released after detectives realized their mistake, The Advocate reports.

  • Facial recognition technology has led to at least three prior false arrests— all involving Black men, Wired reported last year. The technology has long been faulted for failures to accurately identify Black faces.

In New York, a personal injury lawyer recently said she was kicked out of Radio City Music Hall, which is owned by Madison Square Garden Entertainment, after being identified by facial recognition tech installed there.

  • The lawyer, Kelly Conlon, works for a firm involved in a personal injury suit against an MSG-operated restaurant.
  • MSG has banned all lawyers at firms involved in lawsuits against the company from its properties, including the arena where the New York Knicks and Rangers play. It's using facial recognition software — which sports stadiums and other venues are increasingly using as a security tool — to enforce that ban.

  • "While we understand this policy is disappointing to some, we cannot ignore the fact that litigation creates an inherently adversarial environment,” the company said in a statement to The New York Times.

Zoom out: Some cities and states that have restricted use of face recognition in the past are mulling whether to loosen those rules to fight upswings in crime. Others are holding fast.

What they're saying: Some critics point to the Madison Square Garden encounter as an example of overreach on the part of private companies.

  • "This is exactly why we need an outright ban on all use of facial recognition surveillance in places of public accommodation like bars, restaurants, retail stores, and music and sports venues," said Evan Greer, director of digital rights advocacy group Fight for the Future, in a statement.

What we're watching: Several federal lawmakers have introduced bills meant to curtail the use of facial recognition tech nationwide. The proposals have yet to advance.


What's next: On a technological level, facial recognition tech will only keep improving — University of Georgia researchers are working on a system that works based solely on the shape of people's ears.

  • Expect surveillance-based facial recognition to proliferate despite efficacy and ethics concerns, especially in high-security areas. The Transportation Security Administration is testing the tech at major airports."
The entire post can be read at:

https://www.axios.com/2023/01/07/facial-recognition-issues-problems

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;


SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985

FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."

Lawyer Radha Natarajan:

Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;

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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!

Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;

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