Ethical aspects of facial recognition systems in public places
| Published date | 31 May 2004 |
| Pages | 97-109 |
| Date | 31 May 2004 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14779960480000246 |
| Author | Philip Brey |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
Ethical Aspects of Facial Recognition Systems
in Public Places
1. INTRODUCTION
After the American Super Bowl XXXV in
Tampa, Florida in June 2001, a major con-
troversy ensued. It became public that
police had used video cameras equipped
with facial recognition technology (“face-
cams”) to scan the faces of the 100,000 vis-
itors to the Bowl in search of wanted crim-
inals. Many people were outraged, and this
Super Bowl has since been dubbed the
“Snooper Bowl” (Lyman, 2001) Although
not well known to the general public, facial
recognition technology is nowadays used in
many places across the world. It is used for
a variety of purposes, one of them being
surveillance in public areas, as in the Super
Bowl. Even at the time Super Bowl XXXV,
facecams were already in use in several
cities, including cities in the U.S. and the
U.K, for routine surveillance of public
areas.
Since the September 11 terrorist attacks,
just months after the Super Bowl event,
federal governments and airports have
taken an interest in the technology as an
instrument in the fight against interna-
tional terrorism. It is currently in trial use
in several international airports in Europe
and the U.S., including Keflavik Airport in
Iceland, Boston’s Logan Airport, Dallas-
Fort Wo r th International and Palm Beach
International Airports (Kopel and Krause,
2002). Moreover, the American Enhanced
Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002 will require
all Americans and all non-U.S. citizens vis-
iting the U.S. to have a passport with a bio-
metric chip that contains their encoded
facial features by October 2004. This data
would then be checked with a database of
suspected criminals and terrorists upon
arrival in the U.S. This measure follows the
recommendations of the International
Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO),
Info, Comm & Ethics in Society (2004) 2: 97–109
©2004 Troubador Publishing Ltd.
KKEEYYWWOORRDDSS
Facial
Recognition
Systems
Ethics
Philip Brey
Department of Philosophy, University of Twente, The Netherlands
Email: p.a.e.brey@utwente.nl
CCOOVVEERRAAGGEE
This essay examines ethical aspects of the use of facial recognition technology for surveillance purposes in public and
semipublic areas, focusing particularly on the balance between security and privacy and civil liberties. As a case study,
the FaceIt facial recognition engine of Identix Corporation will be analyzed, as well as its use in “Smart” video sur-
veillance (CCTV) systems in city centers and airports. The ethical analysis will be based on a careful analysis of cur-
rent facial recognition technology, of its use in Smart CCTVsystems, and of the arguments used by proponents and
opponents of such systems. It will be argued that Smart CCTV, which integ rates video surveillance technology and
biometric technology, faces ethical problems of error, function creep and privacy. In a concluding section on policy, it
will be discussed whether such problems outweigh the security value of Smart CCTV in public places..
ABSTRACT
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