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Should Facial Recognition Cameras Be In Schools? (nyclu.org)
Facial recognition technology is making its way into schools, raising privacy concerns among parents and officials. The New York Civil Liberties Union issued a report on the matter that focuses on one public school district in particular: Western New York's Lockport School District. "News reports indicate the district plans to have the invasive and error-prone technology installed by next school year," reports NYCLU. The Union sent a letter (PDF) to the New York State Education Department urging it to consider students' and teachers' privacy in reviewing the use of surveillance technology by school districts. They also "sent a freedom of information request to the district seeking details of how and where the technology will be used as well as who will have access to the sensitive data that gets collected."
The report highlights some of the concerns/negatives of such a system. For starters, it costs millions of dollars (Lockport spent almost $4 million), which could be used for things like Wi-Fi, new computers, or 3D printers. It has the "potential to turn every step a student takes into evidence of a crime." The databases could include those used for immigration enforcement, making parents of immigrant students afraid to send their children to school for fear that they or their children could end up on ICE's radar. Last but not least, since facial recognition is notoriously inaccurate, "innocent students are likely to be misidentified and punished for things they didn't do."
Of course, it isn't all bad. Proponents of the system say it can be used to alert officials to whenever sex offenders, suspended students, fired employees, suspected gang members, or anyone else placed on a school's "blacklist" enters the premises. Do you think facial recognition cameras belong in schools?
The report highlights some of the concerns/negatives of such a system. For starters, it costs millions of dollars (Lockport spent almost $4 million), which could be used for things like Wi-Fi, new computers, or 3D printers. It has the "potential to turn every step a student takes into evidence of a crime." The databases could include those used for immigration enforcement, making parents of immigrant students afraid to send their children to school for fear that they or their children could end up on ICE's radar. Last but not least, since facial recognition is notoriously inaccurate, "innocent students are likely to be misidentified and punished for things they didn't do."
Of course, it isn't all bad. Proponents of the system say it can be used to alert officials to whenever sex offenders, suspended students, fired employees, suspected gang members, or anyone else placed on a school's "blacklist" enters the premises. Do you think facial recognition cameras belong in schools?
Do you think facial recognition cameras belong in schools?
Short answer? Very rarely if ever.
Of course, it isn't all bad. Proponents of the system say it can be used to alert officials to whenever sex offenders, suspended students, fired employees, suspected gang members, or anyone else placed on a school's "blacklist" enters the premises.
I'm sure there are all sorts of corner cases that can be used to distract us from the big picture. Yes you can come up with unusual circumstances where facial recognition might help. But if you are worried about sex offenders or gang members coming onto school grounds you're going to need to secure the entrances and hire a guard anyway which renders the technology redundant and/or unnecessary. If a suspended student shows up I don't really see that as a huge problem worthy of violating the civil rights of the other students. Same with fired employees. This is massive and expensive overkill for what generally are non-existent or minor problems.
The real question is whether there is a compelling state interest to justify violating civil rights (4th amendment and others) of students, staff and others. Remember that most schools in the US are government funded so this isn't private property. My take on it is that there is no compelling state interest that would justify the cost or the rights violations that would ensue.
Yes.. it could be used for recognizing fired employees and suspected gang members. But why on earth are we discussing face recognition cameras FIRST and only THEN what they could be used for?
"Hey! Let's install a few face recognition cameras at $SOMEWHERE."
"Cool. Should those belong there? What could we do with them?"
"Uhmm... let's think of something. Something with Sex offenders?"
Solution in search of a problem.
Does your school HAVE AN ACTUAL PROBLEM with suspended students or fired employee entering school grounds? If yes, could it be solved better and cheaper with a retired cop sitting at a front desk/gate? THEN we could discuss about pros and cons.
In a related aspect..... why would ICE need face recognition? Wouldn't it be easier to check if known illegal immigrants (They have to be known if their face would be searched for by camera) have enrolled? I don't think it's possible to visit schools in the US anonymously, is it?
bickerdyke
Don't you mean WHEN? Oh, you can bet schools will be the first to adopt these, for the "safety" of the children. Once kids grow up with that technology, as adults, they won't scoff at the idea of them being everywhere, because they are use to it. It's called CONDITIONING.
You already took away their lives.
Your totalitarian control removed their existences. You went waaaay overboard with your pathological fear. Like giving somebody such a big "loving" hug that his rib cage gets crushed and he suffocates.
They are now merely avatars of you.
Nothing against swarm lifeforms... but regarding individual lifeforms, YOU are the one who murdered them.
Besides ... without treating each other like business ... err, I mean anti-social psychopathic asshoke shit ... warmongering, stock trading, terrorist breeding drug selling to kids, healthcare destroying, education ruining, forced labor (aka jobs as we know them) and no social net to speak of, there wouln't be so man fucked-up potentially dangerous people!
(Hmm, didn't the statistic say that crime actually went *down* since the 90s?)
So why don't you do something in that regard?
Like go cure a Goldman Sachs employee. Or a general. Or just a single bum on the street.
How else do the plebs learn that surveillance is ok? If you think it is the norm, you will not doubt it.
Oh! FYI: we have always been at war with Eurasia.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
And in other news, school-shooters are usually identified pretty fast after they have entered the building and they usually were not on any blacklist before that. Does exactly nothing to stop them though. Forget about "locking down" any entrances automatically either. Not compatible with fire-codes and for good reason. Also, face-recognition is _unreliable_.
On the plus-side, the earlier children learn they live in a surveillance-society and not a free one, the better.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.