The Doctors: New Technology Invading Privacy?
The FBI is launching a new facial recognition system that could tell the agency everything the person in just ten minutes, according to The Doctors. The system is available to police as well and has over 100 million records that link someone’s facial characteristics or their fingerprints to their personal information like their addresses or age. Social media photos won’t be used.
The Doctors discussed the software that allows the FBI and the police to use facial recognition to find our personal information. (Franck Boston / Shutterstock.com)
Dr. Travis Stork asked everyone on Twitter to share how they feel about the system. Dr. Rachael Ross said maybe with the new system, there won’t be so much misidentification of people. But on the other hand, we’re taking an invasion of privacy a little too far. Dr. Ross said terrorists are saying they want us to live like we’re in a policed state and with a system like that, we are.
Dr. Drew Ordon said it’s the terrorists that have caused the need for a facial recognition system. Dr. Jim Sears said he doesn’t mind if he’s being watched by the system, as long as they’re watching the bad guys as well. Dr. Stork said that using the facial recognition system at a baseball game where you found out someone planted a bomb, and being able to look at the video footage and find the exact guy sitting the crowd that is on a list of suspected terrorists is the right way to use the system.
The Drs TV: FBI Facial Recognition Software
He said if the system is in his home, then he’s not so excited about it. Dr. Ordon said it was the cameras on the roofs of buildings at the Boston Marathon bombing that helped figure out exactly who did it. Dr. Stork said the concern is about how it would be used, he said if “every time you leave your house, big brother is watching” then that’s where people disagree with its use.
Dr. Ordon explained the software could even be used to find a missing person, which would be an incredibly effective use of the software. The Doctors then looked at what their viewers on Twitter were saying and one woman tweeted: “Those who would give up an essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Ben Franklin.”
Dr. Sears said he wondered if Ben Franklin would say the same thing if he lived today, and Dr. Stork said we wouldn’t need all the surveillance if everyone was just inherently good. He said he gets a sense of comfort knowing that the person who perpetrated a crime could be caught by using the technology in the right way.
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