Trade and consumer rights watchdog FTC is seeking comments from the public on what it thinks regarding the uses and implications of the new facial recognition technology in mobile apps, digital signs, and social networks. Prompted by a workshop it hosted early this month, the FTC would like some issues commented on and these are summarized as follows:
- What current and future uses does facial recognition have in commerce and how can consumers benefit from it?
- What special considerations, if any, are needed when applying the technology to certain sectors of the population such as children?
- What best practices should be adopted when crafting policies and notices for using the technology? In what situations will such notices and polices not be needed and where will they be most needed?
- Will these policies and notices be enough to maintain consumer privacy? How can we preserve privacy when using facial recognition technology?
The trend points to facial recognition as creeping into consumer applications. You see it in photo management apps and online social networking services like Facebook and Google+. Google recently introduced the technology as an option to tagging photos of persons uploaded into its social network Google+. It will be remembered that when Facebook introduced it last summer, it was widely criticized. But unlike Facebook, Google+ allowed its members to choose whether or not to activate facial recognition.
The FTC shows that it is well aware of the trend It monitors development in the rollout of facial recognition in the social network scene as well as reactions from other countries. For instance, the Hamburg Data Protection Authority in Germany initiated preliminary hearings last November against Facebook for introducing the technology without German members’ consent.
The FTC has set January 21st, 2012 as the deadline for getting public comments on facial recognition. These comments can be received in paper form or electronically by email or from its website. If in paper form, the FTC is requesting the public to send their responses via overnight or courier service, considering that the US postal mail service in the agency and the Washington, DC area can be quite slow due to stringent security precautions.
