These days, our biometric data is valuable to businesses for security purposes, to enhance customer experience or to improve their own efficiency.
Facial recognition technology […] scans images or videos from devices including CCTV cameras and picks out faces.
From supermarkets to car parks and railway stations, CCTV cameras are everywhere, silently doing their job. But what exactly is their job now?
Businesses may justify collecting biometric data, but with power comes responsibility and the use of facial recognition raises significant transparency, ethical, and privacy concerns.
If your password gets stolen, you can change it. If your credit card is compromised, you can cancel it. But your face? That’s permanent. Biometric data is incredibly sensitive because it cannot be altered once it’s compromised. This makes it a high-stakes game when it comes to security.
Companies don’t care. They bribe they way to victory.
Companies care insomuch as they’re lobbing in favor of mask ban laws so they can harvest more of our biometrics. Money is speech, companies are people, and bribes are caring.
just fyi masking laws in the US date back as far as mid 1800s when NYC tenants got sick of their price gouging landlords, among other colourful examples.
generally the regime is against masks, with exception of covid, and they back to it.