Perils of face-recognition

Context: Recent stop in the selling of Facial Recognition (FR) systems by the tech giants to the US government amidst George Floyd killings has reignited the debate over the sinister usage of FR.

Advantages of FR:

• Improved Convenience: in cases like card-less financial transactions and waving of international travelers through immigration.

Issues with FR:

• Morally ambiguous technology: Many companies have faced pushback from within its ranks in deploying FR and other AI systems in futuristic weaponry.

• Hardened opposition in Silicon Valley (2018): when it became apparent that these can be used to facilitate target assassinations using drones.
• China uses FR to enforce its social credit system: denying citizens with poor social credit scores right to board flights or trains.
• Hongkong has developed various methods to block FR like wearing T-shirts featuring faces, motorcycle helmet, and shiny jewelry.

• Overcoming technological consequence of pandemic: People are routinely wearing masks which makes FR difficult. However, cutting-edge FR now can identify half faces too. 
• Fear of less-ethical companies moving into this space.
• Loss of privacy: Proliferation of CCTV surveillance has the potential of severely compromising privacy if complemented with FR systems. 
• Absence of moderating legislation in India 

• In several US states, FR usage by law-enforcement is banned by legislation.
• In the EU, the use of FR falls under the General Data Protection Regulation; citizens can ask for the footage to be destroyed under the “Right to forget”.

• Concern for Civil Rights Activists in India

• The government has a blanket right over surveillance, also under the pending proposed Personal Data Protection Bill.
• FR systems have been deployed at many of the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests.