Ethics and emerging technologies – facial recognition
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Emerging technologies and digitalization have an increasing impact on our everyday lives. New technology solutions offer a variety of opportunities to our society, yet the ethical implications of this process have long been discussed by scholars in order to fully understand what the potential ethical risks are. One of such technologies is facial recognition. This article intends to contribute to the above indicated scholarly discussion by analyzing recent developments in the field, focusing on facial recognition.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 3.0 Unported License.
(c) Archil Chochia, Teele Nässi, 2021
Copyright
Contents published in IDP are subject to a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 Spain licence, the full text of which can be consulted on http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/es/deed.en.
Thus, they may be copied, distributed and broadcast provided that the author and IDP are cited, as shown in the recommended citation that accompanies each article. Derivative works are not permitted.
Authors are responsible for obtaining the necessary permission to use copyrighted images.
Assignment of intellectual property rights
The author non exclusively transfers the rights to use (reproduce, distribute, publicly broadcast or transform) and market the work, in full or part, to the journal’s editors in all present and future formats and modalities, in all languages, for the lifetime of the work and worldwide.
The author must declare that he is the original author of the work. The editors shall thus not be held responsible for any obligation or legal action that may derive from the work submitted in terms of violation of third parties’ rights, whether intellectual property, trade secret or any other right.
Archil Chochia, Department of Law Tallinn University of Technology Ehitajate tee 5, Tallinn 19086, Estonia
Senior Researcher at TalTech Law School of Tallinn University of Technology. Dr. Chochia obtained his doctoral degree from Tallinn University of Technology in 2013. He has more than 90 academic publications and is a co-editor of the books Political and Legal Perspectives of the EU Eastern Partnership Policy (Springer, 2016), Brexit: History, Reasoning and Perspectives (Springer, 2018) and Russian Federation in the Global Knowledge Warfare — Influence Operations in Europe and Its Neighbourhood (Springer, 2021). Archil is a managing editor of TalTech Journal of European Studies. His research fields of interest are law and technology, ethical aspects of digitalization, alternative dispute resolution, EU integration, EU Neighbourhood Policy. Archil is a Senior Fellow of Weinstein International Foundation.
Teele Nässi, Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech)
Master level student at TalTech Law School of Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia. Ms. Nässi has obtained her diploma, BA in Law, from TalTech Law School of Tallinn University of Technology in 2012. Currently, Ms. Nässi works for the local government as a lawyer, while she previously worked as a clerk at the Harju County court for five years.
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL (2020). “Amnesty International Calls for Ban on the Use of Facial Recognition Technology for Mass Surveillance”. In: Amnesty International [online]. Available at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/research/2020/06/amnesty-international-calls-for-ban-on-the-use-of-facial-recognition-technology-for-mass-surveillance/ [Accessed: 17 May 2021].
ARRIDGE, S.; MOSS, J. P.; LINNEY, A. D.; JAMES, D. R. (1985). “Three dimensional digitization of the face and skull”. In: Journal of Maxillofacial Surgery, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 136-143 [online]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0301-0503(85)80034-5
BEEVER, J.; MCDANIEL, R.; STANLICK, N. A. (2019). Understanding Digital Ethics: Cases and Contexts [online]. Abingdon: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315282138
BREY, P. (2010). “Philosophy of technology after the empirical turn”. In: Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 36-48 [online]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5840/techne20101416
BROWNSWORD, R.; GOODWIN, M. (2012). Law and the Technologies of the Twenty-First Century [online]. New York: Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139047609
BUCKLEY, B.; HUNTER, M. (2011). “Say Cheese! Privacy and facial recognition”. In: Computer Law and Security Review, vol. 27, vol. 6, pp. 637-640 [online]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clsr.2011.09.011
CLEARVIEW.AI (n.d.). Clearview AI official website [online]. Available at: https://clearview.ai [Accessed: 17 May 2021].
COUNCIL OF EUROPE (1950). European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms [online]. Available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b3b04.html [Accessed: 17 May 2021].
DAVIS, J. P.; FORREST, C.; TREML, F.; JANSARI, A. (2018). “Identification from CCTV: Assessing police super-recogniser ability to spot faces in a crowd and susceptibility to change blindness”. In: Appl Cognit Psychol, no. 32, pp. 337-353 [online]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3405
DEIGH, J. (2010). An Introduction to Ethics [online]. New York: Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511750519
DELOITTE (n.d.). Europe’s “Trustworthy AI” meets AI Ethics. The ethics of AI [online]. Available at: https://www2.deloitte.com/nl/nl/pages/risk/articles/europes-trustworthy-ai-meets-ai-ethics.html [Accessed: 27 April 2021].
DIETERLE, B. (2021). “People As Data?: Developing an Ethical Framework for Feminist Digital Research”. In: Computers and Composition, vol. 59 [online]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compcom.2021.102630
EHEALTH NETWORK (2020). “Mobile Applications to Support Contact Tracing in the EU’s Fight against COVID-19” [online]. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/health/sites/default/files/ehealth/docs/covid-19_apps_en.pdf [Accessed: 17 May 2021].
ELLUL, J. (1964). The Technological Society. New York: Vintage Books.
EUROPEAN COMMISSION (2020). “White Paper on Artificial Intelligence-A European approach to excellence and trust” [online]. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/default/files/commission-white-paper-artificial-intelligence-feb2020_en.pdf [Accessed: 20 September 2021].
EUROPEAN DATA PROTECTION BOARD (EDPB) (2020). “Guidelines 04/2020 on the Use of Location Data and Contact Tracing Tools in the Context of the COVID-19 Outbreak” [online]. Available at: https://edpb.europa.eu/sites/default/files/files/file1/edpb_guidelines_20200420_contact_tracing_covid_with_annex_en.pdf [Accessed: 17 May 2021].
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENTARY RESEARCH SERVICE (2020). “European framework on ethical aspects of artificial intelligence, robotics and related technologies. European Added Value Assessment” [online]. Available at: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?reference=EPRS_STU(2020)654179 [Accessed: 23 September 2021].
EUROPEAN UNION (2012). Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, 2012/C 326/02 [online]. Available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/HR/TXT/?uri=celex:12012P/TXT [Accessed: 17 May 2021].
EUROPEAN UNION (2016). EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 [online]. Available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32016R0679&from=EN [Accessed: 17 May 2021].
EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS (FRA) (2019). Facial recognition technology: fundamental rights considerations in the context of law enforcement [online]. Available at: https://fra.europa.eu/en/publication/2019/facial-recognition-technology-fundamental-rights-considerations-context-law [Accessed: 20 September 2021].
GATES, K. A. (2011). Our Biometric Future: Facial Recognition Technology and the Culture of Surveillance [online]. 2nd. ed. NYU Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9780814732090.001.0001
GEBRU, T. (2020). “Race and gender”. In: The Oxford handbook of ethics of AI, pp. 251-269 [online]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190067397.013.16
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH (2020). “Joint Civil Society Statement: States Use of Digital Surveillance Technologies to Fight Pandemic Must Respect Human Rights” [online]. Available at: https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/04/02/joint-civil-society-statement-states-use-digital-surveillance-technologies-fight [Accessed: 17 May 2021].
INTRONA, L.; NISSENBAUM, H. (2010). “Facial Recognition Technology A Survey of Policy and Implementation Issues”. In: Organisation, Work and Technology Working Paper Series. Lancaster: The Department of Organisation, Work and Technology of Lancaster University Management School.
JOAMETS, K.; CHOCHIA, A. (2020). “Artificial intelligence and its impact on labour relations in Estonia”. In: Slovak Journal of Political Sciences, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 255-277 [online]. DOI: http://doi.org/10.34135/sjps.200204 https://doi.org/10.34135/sjps.200204
JOAMETS, K.; CHOCHIA, A. (2021). “Access to Artificial Intelligence for Persons with Disabilities: Legal and Ethical Questions Concerning the Application of Trustworthy AI”. In: Acta Baltica Historiae et Philosophiae Scientiarum, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 51-66 [online]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.11590/abhps.2021.1.04
JOBIN, A.; IENCA, M.; VAYENA, E. (2019). “The global landscape of AI ethics guidelines”. In: Nature Machine Intelligence, vol. 1, pp. 389-399 [online]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42256-019-0088-2
JOHNSON, D. (2004). “Computer ethics”. In: FLORIDI, L. (ed.). The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Computing and Information, pp. 65-75 [online]. New York: Blackwell. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470757017.ch5
KERIKMÄE, T.; HOFFMANN, T.; CHOCHIA, A. (2018). “Legal technology for law firms: determining roadmaps for innovation”. In: Croatian International Relations Review, vol. 24, no. 81, pp. 91-112 [online]. Available at: https://hrcak.srce.hr/199994 [Accessed: 28 November 2021].
KERIKMÄE, T.; SOLARTE-VASQUEZ, M. C.; RUDANKO, M.; TROITIÑO, D. R. (eds.) (2020). Inteligencia artificial: de la discrepancia regional a las reglas universales. Integración de percepciones políticas, económicas y legales. Pamplona: Thomson Reuters.
KOSINSKI, M. (2021). “Facial recognition technology can expose political orientation from naturalistic facial images”. In: Sci Rep, no. 11, 100 [online]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-79310-1
LEONG, B. (2019). “Facial recognition and the future of privacy: I always feel like…somebody’s watching me”. In: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, vol. 75, no. 3, pp. 109-115 [online]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00963402.2019.1604886
LYNCH, J. (2012). “What Facial Recognition Technology Means for Privacy and Civil Liberties”. In: Senate Committee on the Judiciary [online]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2134497
MILLIGAN, C. S. (1999). “Facial recognition technology, video surveillance, and privacy”. In: Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 295-334.
MOSS, J. P.; LINNEY, A. D.; GRINDROD, S. R.; ARRIDGE, S. R.; CLIFTON, J. S. (1987). “Three-dimensional visualization of the face and skull using computerized tomography and laser scanning techniques”. In: European Journal of Orthodontics, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 247-253 [online]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ejo/9.4.247
NAKER, S.; GREENBAUM, D. (2017). “Now you see me: Now you still do: Facial recognition technology and the growing lack of privacy”. In: Boston University Journal of Science and Technology Law, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 88-122.
NATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION (2016). “Privacy Best Practices Recommendations for Commercial Facial Recognition Use” [online]. Available at: https://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/privacy_best_practices_recommendations_for_commercial_use_of_facial_recogntion.pdf [Accessed: 17 May 2021].
PARFETT, A.; TOWNLEY, S.; ALLERFELDT, K. (2020). “AI-based healthcare: a new dawn or apartheid revisited?”. In: AI & Society [online]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-020-01120-w
PARSONS, T. D. (2019). Ethical Challenges in Digital Psychology and Cyberpsychology [online]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108553384
RAMOS, L. F. (2020). “Evaluating privacy during the COVID-19 public health emergency: the case of facial recognition technologies”. In: Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance, pp. 176-179 [online]. New York: Association for Computing Machinery. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3428502.3428526
RING, T. (2020). “Face ID Firms Battle Covid-19 as Users Shun Fingerprinting”. In: Biometric Technology Today, vol. 4, pp. 1-2 [online]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0969-4765(20)30042-4
ROYAL COURT OF JUSTICE (2019). R (Bridges) vs. CC South Wales & ors. EWCA Civ 1058, Case No: C1/2019/2670 [online]. Available at: https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/R-Bridges-v-CC-South-Wales-ors-Judgment.pdf [Accessed: 14 May 2021].
SANDFORD, A.; BINDEMANN, M., (2020). “Discrimination and recognition of faces with changed configuration”. In: Mem Cogn, no. 48, pp. 287-298 [online]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-019-01010-7
SPIESEL, C. (2020). “Technology’s Black Mirror: Seeing, Machines, and Culture”. In: Int J Semiot Law [online]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11196-019-09679-4
STEINACKER, L.; MECKEL, M.; KOSTKA, G.; BORTH, D. (2020). “Facial Recognition: A cross-national Survey on Public Acceptance, Privacy, and Discrimination”. In: Law and ML Workshop.
TENE, O. (2011). “Privacy: The new generations”. In: International Data Privacy Law, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 15-27 [online]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/idpl/ipq003
THE GUARDIAN (2020). “Welfare surveillance system violates human rights, Dutch court rules” [online]. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/05/welfare-surveillance-system-violates-human-rights-dutch-court-rules [Accessed: 14 May 2021].
TROITIÑO, D. R.; KERIKMÄE, T.; SHUMILO, O.; RAMÍREZ BARBOSA, P. A. (2020). “El libro blanco sobre inteligencia artificial: análisis y comentarios sobre mercado, valores y cooperación europea”. In: KERIKMÄE, T.; SOLARTE-VASQUEZ, M. C.; RUDANKO, M.; TROITIÑO, D. R. (eds.). El Parlamento Europeo y la necesidad de una legislación común en un marco europeo de la inteligencia artificial. Inteligencia artificial: de la discrepancia regional a las reglas universales. Integración de percepciones políticas, económicas y legales, pp. 303-317. Pamplona: Thomson Reuters.
UNITED KINGDOM (2018). “UK Data Protection Act” [online]. Available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2018/12/contents/enacted [Accessed: 17 May 2021].
UNITED NATIONS (1948). “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” [online]. Available at: https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights [Accessed: 17 May 2021].
VERBEEK, P.-P. (2011). Moralizing Technology, Understanding and Designing the Morality of Things [online]. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226852904.001.0001
VERZE, L. (2009). “History of facial recognition”. In: Acta Biomed, vol. 80, pp. 5-12.
VILAR, S. B. (2020). “La sociedad postcoronavirus con big data, algoritmos y vigilancia digital, ¿excusa por motivos sanitarios?, ¿y los derechos dónde quedan?”. Revista Boliviana de Derecho, no. 30, pp. 14-39.
WELINDER, Y. (2012). “A Face Tells More than a Thousand Posts: Developing Face Recognition Privacy in Social Networks”. In: Harvard Journal of Law and Technology, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 166-237.
WILKINSON, C. (2004). “Forensic facial reconstruction”. Cambridge University Press.
WINSTON, M.; EDELBACH, R. (2011). Society, Ethics and Technology [online]. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107340961
ZLOTEANU, M.; BULL, P.; KRUMHUBER, E. G.; RICHARDSON, D. C. (2021). “Veracity judgement, not accuracy: Reconsidering the role of facial expressions, empathy, and emotion recognition training on deception detection”. In: Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, vol. 74, no. 5, pp. 910-927 [online]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1747021820978851