If you watch ‘Black Mirror’, then you know how scary technology can be.
Well, recent reports by Rolling Stone that Taylor Swift has secretly been using facial recognition technology on her fans is sounding a little like ‘Black Mirror’ to me.
While it seems like Taylor has only been using the tech to root out stalkers, it doesn’t change the fact that it’s kind of creepy. Who knows what else this tech can do?
In 2016, Georgetown University conducted a study that showed that almost 117 million people’s identities were already in facial recognition databases and there isn’t a lot of legal instruction on how that data can be used. Plus, since the technology hasn’t been perfected, innocent people could be targeted as a result. Jay Stanley, Senior Policy Analyst of ACLU, also points out the issues of how the data is collected, managed and stored, and the potential of it being breached or shared.
Mary Haskett, Blink Identity’s Co-Founder, however, believes that facial recognition technology can improve people’s lives. For instance, it could offer faster entry to events by simply capturing a person’s image as they walk by. The problem with Taylor’s situation is that she kept it a secret and that it has been used with people’s knowledge.
Do you think this kind of technology can have good implications?
