Business Insider India has updated its Privacy and Cookie policy. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the better experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we\'ll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies on the Business Insider India website. However, you can change your cookie setting at any time by clicking on our Cookie Policy at any time. You can also see our Privacy Policy.
Some big groups have pulled out of meetings about facial recognition technology
Some big groups have pulled out of meetings about facial recognition technology
Cale Guthrie WeissmanJun 17, 2015, 03:10 IST
Questions have been percolating about what sort of safeguards will be in place for commercial use of facial recognition technology. This has led to a series of meetings - spearheaded by the National Telecommunications Information Administration - among government officials, technology groups, and privacy advocates in the hopes of crafting "privacy safeguards."These proceedings, however, have suffered a setback after nine privacy organizations announced they are backing out because their minimum requirements were not met.A joint statement from the companies exiting the meetings, which include the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the Center for Democracy and Technology, and Consumer Watchdog, reads:The EFF, in another blog post published earlier today, goes even further and decries federal use of face recognition technology. "Despite the sensitivity of face recognition data," it writes, "the federal government and state and local law enforcement agencies continue to build ever-larger face recognition databases."Despite months of meetings, a tipping point has now been reached and these nine organizations are leaving the conversation. According to the EFF, the privacy advocates' most important goal was to establish an "opt-in regime," where people had to knowingly accept to being facially recognized. It seems it didn't work out.Even with this mass exodus, an NTIA spokeswoman told the New York Times that the agency will continue with meetings "for those stakeholders who want to participate."
