Facial Recognition

A report by the Center on Privacy and Technology at Georgetown Law warns of the potential dangers and ineffectiveness of facial recognition scanning soon to rollout at airports nationwide. The MacArthur-supported report concludes that a Department of Homeland Security pilot program that scans the faces of travelers before they depart inaccurately gathers data on travelers. Researchers find that the technology has high error rates and is subject to bias because the scans often fail to properly identify women and African Americans. The report warns that the information gathered by such technology could be misused, given there are no policies in place to govern its use.