University of Michigan Study Advocates Ban of Facial Recognition in Schools

University of Michigan researchers recently published a study showing facial recognition technology in schools has limited efficacy and presents a number of serious problems. From a report: The research was led by Shobita Parthasarathy, director of the university's Science, Technology, and Public Policy (STPP) program, and finds the technology isn't just ill-suited to security purposes, it can actively promote racial discrimination, normalize surveillance, and erode privacy while marginalizing gender nonconforming students. The study follows the New York legislature's passage of a moratorium on the use of facial recognition and other forms of biometric identification in schools until 2022. The bill, a response to the Lockport City School District launching a facial recognition system, was among the first in the nation to explicitly regulate or ban use of the technology in schools. That development came after companies including Amazon, IBM, and Microsoft halted or ended the sale of facial recognition products in response to the first wave of Black Lives Matter protests in the U.S.

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[Tablizer]

When they start using it to track who has guns, your side will begin caring also.

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[PPH]

When they start using it to track who has guns

What? Like match faces against some theoretical firearm registration database at the entrance to a mall? Aside from no such database existing in many places, it would be funny. About half the people in my state own guns. Maybe more. Not that they actually carry them everywhere, but watching the little box at the entrance going "Gun! Gun! Gun! ....." all damned day is going to rewrite the left wing narrative pretty quickly.

Not gonna happen

[rsilvergun]

there is a _lot_ of money to be made selling this tech to schools and because it's children they have limited constitutional rights. We'd need to reform large swaths of our political, campaigning and voting systems to prevent something like this, and I just don't think we're up to the challenge.

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[Joce640k]

If the schools need much security then there's something very wrong with the society.

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[PPH]

There's the rare case of an outsider shooter coming on to campus. But then Adam Lanza just shot his way into an elementary school. There's also a problem with paid test takers sitting in for students at exam time. But by far the largest problem is that outsiders making their way onto campus are often doing so to sell drugs and other contraband. And it's particularly this last case where customers^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hstudents are adamantly against the implementation of such surveillance.

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[Joce640k]

There's the rare case of an outsider shooter coming on to campus. But then Adam Lanza just shot his way into an elementary school. There's also a problem with paid test takers sitting in for students at exam time. But by far the largest problem is that outsiders making their way onto campus are often doing so to sell drugs and other contraband. And it's particularly this last case where customers^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hstudents are adamantly against the implementation of such surveillance.

Shooters can shoot the security guard. Drug dealers can wait outside or throw it over the fence.

Ordinary photo ID would seem to work for exam-fakers. Have the students put their ID on the table for the duration of the exam and somebody can go around looking at them. The risk of being caught is going to be extremely high.

I dunno, to me this seems like an expensive solution looking for a well-funded problem to solve.

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[rtb61]

Well, yes, there are still many things wrong with society. The LAW being the LAW, in this case, duty of care, demands facial recognition and at all entry points and exit points from a school. Someone attempting to enter the school inappropriately, should be picked up on security and their image checked.

Want to know the real tricky one, cameras in classrooms monitoring teaching and learning activity to track teacher performance, again duty of care makes it tough. You have the possibility to make it safer, y

One surefire way to avoid facial recognition

[Applehu Akbar]

WEAR THAT MASK!

Promote racial discrimination?

[NawShucksNo]

How does it promote racial discrimination? Does Alexa state your skin color in Hex or something? More likely it promotes identification of the presence of racial discrimination. Or is it because only rich white schools can afford this?

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[PPH]

I believe the current narrative

That may be the current narrative. But the reality is that systems trained on white, European faces tend to do poorly with other races. So it depends on what you are using it for. Such facial recognition will produce more false negatives with minorities. Which, for spotting criminals would seem to be a plus. However, its use for identity verification (probably what colleges want to use it for) will result in more minorities being pulled out of line and asked for supplemental identification. Which would tend

Obligatory comment for U of M

[Gojira Shipi-Taro]

Ann Arbor is a WHORE!