Perspectives on the intersection of technology and privacy.
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One of the Problems with Mass Surveillance
There are many problematic issues with the use mass surveillance technology but the one we are talking about today is related to how they just don’t work very well.
Advances in Identity Technology and Privacy
Biometric identification technology is advancing faster than established best practices and laws that address their use. Four states have laws that cover biometric privacy - is that good enough?
Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Face Recognition (but were afraid to ask)
Almost every day there is an article in the news about face recognition technology. Let’s dig down and learn some of the basics about how it works.
ACLU Attacks Face Recognition in NY School
The ACLU has critiqued a recent project to use face recognition technology in New York schools. Is the criticism valid? Well, yes and no.
ACLU Yanks Congress' Chain About Amazon's Face Recognition
The ACLU did an experiment comparing a criminal watch list to members of Congress. The results got a lot of press but actually weren’t at all surprising.
Security versus Security Theater
In general, people are terrible at assessing risk. We intuitively associate familiar with safe and unfamiliar with dangerous. When bad things happen, we want someone to do something, even if it’s not helpful. This generally isn’t a good thing.
Accuracy of Police Face Recognition Systems
There have been a bunch of articles published recently about the terrible accuracy of facial recognition technology used by the police. This sounds really bad, but to understand it, you have to understand accuracy in biometrics.
Marbles and Probability
A recent blog post mentioned that the Android and Apple phone specifications call for at least a 1 in 50,000 probability of a false match. In other words, a randomly selected imposter will have a 1 in 50,000 chance of unlocking your phone with his fingerprint. Let’s visualize that.
The Economics of Identity
When people, companies, or organizations make a choice about a particular identity mechanism, they are making an economic decision. Every mechanism has a cost - and these costs should be balanced. A perfect identity system will have so much friction that it will allow no customers and a frictionless identity system will allow plenty of customers, but unlimited fraud.
The Wonders of Human Face Recognition
Humans are remarkably better at face recognition tasks than computers. We are so good at recognizing faces, that we don’t even realize it’s a difficult task.