Facial Recognition Technology in Public Housing Prompts Backlash

The facial recognition is only to verify the tracking of your cellphone.

This is terrifying. I don't want militarized police executing an AI-informed capture list in my neighborhood. ugh

Giving landlords the power to control access to someone's apartment will invariably lead to civil rights violations. According to the article: "Landlords are considering the technology as a replacement for their tenants’ key fobs..." When you rent an apartment you are paying for unfettered access to your home. If you allow a third party to control access to your home, then you will automatically see those in control of the lock begin to demand concessions for entry. This will range from simple harassment for not cleaning the lint trap in the clothes dryer, to lock-outs for late rent, to services in the back room. This has now become standard practice in the budget hotel industry. Invariably, the electronic key-card no longer works after a few days stay in the hotel, which requires a trip to the front desk. They always tell you that you damaged the key card, but in reality they've initially programmed the card to bring you back to the desk (ostensibly because bank might have reversed your credit card payment since checking-in). This requires a twenty minute trip to the front desk every evening. The hotel doesn't care less about wasting your time. I also saw something similar in action at the Salvation Army Harbor Lights facility in Minneapolis. There the county health service operates a clinic located behind the front door. But the people at the front desk work for the Salvation Army, and require everybody to be searched and breathalyzed before entry.

"“I think that police departments won’t make frivolous claims based solely on technology,” said Sandra Henriquez, the commission’s executive director." Of course not. They'll use many tools, like plea deals, drug planting, rough rides, rapes while in custody, murders by stranglehold, racial profiling, racist "benevolent organization" leaders, arresting people who are ATTACKED by neo-Nazis while letting the Nazis go free, swapping the face given to the face-recognizer, and their national Frat Order's endorsement of the loser to ensure those frivolous claims stick. When all of that fails, they'll just set up a domestic black site, like the horrifying Homan Square of Chicago with its Prisoner "Entrance" (double quotes theirs!)[1], to beat the wrongly and flimsily accused into compliant "confession". NO to further filling cop quotas with Zuck's and Bezos' face-creeping. YES to a US GDPR! [1] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/14/homan-square-detainee-police-abuse

You already know you are wrong if you are cutting down the trees around a building that make such places nicer to live in. It would have been simple to put cameras in places that the trees did not block but the same poorly constructed mind that chose to do this probably also chose not to spend the money on better placement and more cameras when they could just make life worse for the residents and easier for themselves.

Someone is making money off of these surveillance systems. Follow the benjamins.

Believe what you will, but it is not about justice. Technology will be used to fill for-profit prisons with low level criminals. That an accused is innocent will still pay profits.

The push against this technology is that people want to be able to illegally sublet or rent their apartments, and/or use them for illegal activity. They know that tying faces to apartments will prevent this behavior.

They're using this in China, too -- This article should have a link (I've put it below) or at least mention to the recent NYT article about the Chinese government's use of facial recognition/tracking technology on the Uighur people. Slippery slope, everyone. SCARY that Americans can't see they're giving their liberty away. What about the 4th Amendment?!! https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/08/world/asia/china-uighur-muslim-detention-camp.html

"This technology ... would only criminalize vulnerable communities..." Do you want to protect the criminals or the victims, is the real question here. In China, technology is used for mass control, in Detroit housing the issues are completely different - violence, drug dealing, robberies, mugging. Why on earth would Pressley want to ignore this?

We need to ban facial recognition in public spacings till it is 100%. It the technology cannot accurately decipher people of color and minorities - the same people who are arrested more often by police, this will only make their lives more precarious.

This is a bad idea. The people who are experts in this technology wrote a letter asking Amazon to stop selling this to law enforcement because it cannot accurately identify people of color and women. It’s terrible that it would be implemented in a place where most residents are not white. From a NYT article this spring: “At least 25 prominent artificial-intelligence researchers, including experts at Google, Facebook, Microsoft and a recent winner of the prestigious Turing Award, have signed a letter calling on Amazon to stop selling its facial-recognition technology to law enforcement agencies because it is biased against women and people of color.” Congress needs to act on this. Spend that money on schools.

The possible abuse of facial recognition software is a minor issue, which the Times likes to harp on. The major issue is the use of surveillance cameras all over the city. That is what takes away your privacy.

There are 12 million licensed drivers in New York State. Give me their photo id database with facial recognition software, and I'll find 1,000 people who look just like you.

1. If a technology exists, it WILL be used. 2. People can almost always be persuaded to "give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety" in Franklin's words. 3. Genies cannot be put back in bottles. The only hope is strong legislation protecting privacy rights, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that.