Who Has Your Face? Fight Against U.S. Government Agencies' Use of Face Recognition

Jason Kelley, Dr. Matthew Guariglia Friday, July 31, 2020: 1200. The fight against government use of face recognition technology is an important one, and one that civil liberties and other groups have come at from many different angles. Unfortunate...

Jason Kelley, Dr. Matthew Guariglia

Friday, July 31, 2020: 1200. The fight against government use of face recognition technology is an important one, and one that civil liberties and other groups have come at from many different angles. Unfortunately, the technology is already out there - in use - and endangering people's privacy. Due to differing laws, regulations, and data-sharing agreements between federal, state, and local agencies across the country, U.S. residents and visitors frequently have their image not only collected and stored for facial recognition purposes by the government, but often also secretively shared between dozens of agencies. Because of the complexity of these laws and agreements, it's very difficult to learn who exactly has your image. It can take a hacker mindset to learn where your image is - FOIAs, online research, even contacting individuals directly at government agencies. Using all of these methods, EFF developed a new interactive website to explain to users which agencies might be using their image for face recognition - and to spur them to act. The speakers will explain issues with facial recognition technology; what sort of advocacy has been effective in the past; where we stand on federal, state, and local regulations; and discuss how they did the research, design, and creation of the whohasyourface.org website and its result on laws and advocacy, as well as suggest ways that others can build on this research.