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Back to To the Point

To the Point

Does facial recognition software threaten our freedom?

Facial recognition software is touted as making us safer. Is it worth the risk of misidentification -- and the violation of privacy? Is the genie out of the bottle or can it be controlled?

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By Warren Olney • Nov 7, 2019 • 49m Listen

Surveillance cameras are capturing what we do on the streets, at airports, in stores, and in much of our public space. Facial recognition software is touted as making us safer. But mass surveillance has downsides of major proportions.

Kade Crawford of the Massachusetts ACLU is concerned about violation of privacy. She worries that law enforcement agencies will have access to databases that show: “You’ve been in the vicinity of an abortion clinic six times; that you’ve been in the vicinity of a sex shop six times; that you’ve visited a therapist every week at the same time for five years.”

  • https://images.ctfassets.net/2658fe8gbo8o/AvYox6VuEgcxpd20Xo9d3/769bca4fbf97bf022190f4813812c1e2/new-default.jpg?h=250

    Warren Olney

    former KCRW broadcaster

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    Andrea Brody

    Senior Producer, KCRW's Life Examined and To the Point podcast

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    Kade Crockford

    Director ACLU of Massachusetts Technology for Liberty Project

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    Erik Learned Miller

    Professor in the College of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

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    David Brin

    scientist and science fiction author

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