Skip to main content

Ethics of Face Recognition in Smart Cities Toward Trustworthy AI

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Big Data Privacy and Security in Smart Cities

Abstract

In the past few decades, thanks to the continuous development of machine learning and deep learning algorithms, as well as the continuous improvement of computing power and databases, facial recognition technology (FRT) has developed rapidly. Widespread use of this technology can be seen in all fields of life, such as facepay, individual identification, smart-city surveillance, e-passport or even face to DNA identification. However, some experts believe that certain errors that commonly creep into its functionality and a few ethical considerations need to be addressed before its most elaborate applications can be realized. This article explores the ethical issues of FRT used in different scenarios, tries to examine some legal and regulatory issues that may be encountered during the use of FRT, and technically analyze how to build a trustworthy intelligent system.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Roussi A (2020) Resisting the rise of facial recognition. Nature 587:350–353

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Noorden RV (2020) The ethical questions that haunt facial-recognition research. Nature 587:354–358

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Castelvecchi D (2020) Is facial recognition too biased to be let loose? Nature 587:347–349

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Kelion L (2019) Crime prediction software ‘adopted by 14 UK police forces. BBC, 4 Feb 2019 (Tech)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Rauenzahn B, Chung J, Kaufman A (2021) Facing bias in facial recognition technology. Rights, Saturday Seminar, Penn program on regulation

    Google Scholar 

  6. Nations United (2020) Bias, racism and lies: facing up to the unwanted consequences of AI. UN News, 30 Dec 2020

    Google Scholar 

  7. BBC (2019) Artificial intelligence: algorithms face scrutiny over potential bias. BBC, 20 March 2019 (Tech)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Gebru T (2020) Race and gender. In: The Oxford handbook of ethics of AI

    Google Scholar 

  9. Manyika J, Silberg J, Presten AB (2019) What do we do about the biases in AI? Harvard Bus Rev

    Google Scholar 

  10. Brey P (2004) Ethical aspects of facial recognition systems in public places. J Inf Commun Ethics Soc 2

    Google Scholar 

  11. Bu Q (2021) The global governance on automated facial recognition (AFR): ethical and legal opportunities and privacy challenges. Int Cybersecur Law Rev 2:113–145

    Google Scholar 

  12. Benniao Technology (2020) Google caught off guard! The privacy of millions of users has been “leaked”, demanding $5 billion in compensation. 27 Oct 2021. https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1668544543962194461&wfr=spider&for=pc

  13. Clever S, Crago T, Polka A et al (2018) Ethical analyses of smart city applications. Urban Sci 2

    Google Scholar 

  14. Stein MI (2020) New Orleans City Council bans facial recognition, predictive policing and other surveillance tech. The LENS, 18 Dec 2020

    Google Scholar 

  15. McDonough A (2020) The NYPD has a surveillance problem. City&State, 15 Oct 2020

    Google Scholar 

  16. Kitchin R (2019) The ethics of smart cities. RTE, 27 April 2019

    Google Scholar 

  17. Wei M, Rodrigo V (2021) The impact of face recognition payment in the economic. In: DESD 2021. Atlantic Press

    Google Scholar 

  18. Che SP, Nan D, Kamphuis P, Kim JH (2021) A comparative analysis of attention to facial recognition payment between China and South Korea: a news analysis using Latent Dirichlet allocation. In: HCI International 2021, International conference on human-computer interaction, pp 75–82

    Google Scholar 

  19. Kawakami T, Hinata Y (2019) Pay with your face: 100 m Chinese switch from smartphones. NIKKEI Asia, 26 Oct 2019

    Google Scholar 

  20. Selfin M (2020) Is the rest of the world ready for facial pay? Payments J, 10 March 2020

    Google Scholar 

  21. Dan Z (2021) Apps barred from indiscriminate collection of unnecessary personal information. Global Times, 28 July 2021

    Google Scholar 

  22. Allen K (2019) China facial recognition: law professor sues wildlife park. BBC, 8 Nov 2019

    Google Scholar 

  23. Dean S (2020) Forget credit cards—now you can pay with your face. Creepy or cool? Los Angeles Times, 14 Aug 2020

    Google Scholar 

  24. Liu Y, Yan W, Hu B (2021) Resistance to facial recognition payment in China: the influence of privacy-related factors. Telecommun Policy 45:102155

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Apple Inc. (2021) About Face ID advanced technology. 29 Oct 2021. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208108

  26. THALES. Facial recognition issues. https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/markets/digital-identity-and-security/government/inspired/facial-recognition-issues

  27. Analytic IT solutions. 7 simple tips for optimizing a website’s user experience. https://www.analytixit.com/2020/06/17/7-simple-tips-for-optimizing-a-websites-user-experience/

  28. Frederickx I (2019) From face to DNA: new method aims to improve match between DNA sample and face database. KU LEUVEN, 11 June 2019

    Google Scholar 

  29. White JD, Indencleef K, Naqvi S et al (2020) Insights into the genetic architecture of the human face. Nat Genet 53:45–53

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Weinberg M, Shaffer JR (2020) Researchers scan DNA to learn how facial features form. Pittwire

    Google Scholar 

  31. Hereward CCAJ (2018) How accurately can scientists reconstruct a person’s face from DNA? Smithsonian

    Google Scholar 

  32. Marano LA, Fridman C (2019) DNA phenotyping: current application in forensic science. Res Reo Forensic Med Sci 9:1–8

    Google Scholar 

  33. ACOG Committee Opinion (2008) Ethical issues in genetic testing. ACOG (410)

    Google Scholar 

  34. Goh K, Cusick ME, Valle D et al (2007) The human disease network. Proc Natl Acad Sci 104:8685–8690

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. CODEX genetics (2020) Codex is committed to keep personal data and genetic information confidential. https://www.codexgenetics.com/blog/en/Protecting-the-Privacy-of-Genetic-Information/

  36. Richardson R (2021) Facial recognition in the public sector: the policy landscape. GMFUS

    Google Scholar 

  37. Almeida D, Shmarko K, Lomas E (2021) The ethics of facial recognition technologies, surveillance, and accountability in an age of artificial intelligence: a comparative analysis of US, EU, and UK regulatory frameworks. AI Ethics

    Google Scholar 

  38. Administrative Code—Acquisition of Surveillance Technology. Stop Secret Surveillance Ordinance. Electronic Frontier Foundation (05/06/2019)

    Google Scholar 

  39. Okland. Chapter 9.64 - Regulations on City’s Acquisition and Use of Surveillance Technology. Oakland, California—Code of Ordinances

    Google Scholar 

  40. Polsinelli PC (2021) Past, present and future: what’s happening with Illinois’ and other biometric privacy laws. The National Law Review XI(308)

    Google Scholar 

  41. California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). https://oag.ca.gov/privacy/ccpa

  42. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). https://gdpr-info.eu/

  43. Mitchell M, Wu S, Zaldivar A et al (2018) Model Cards for Model Reporting. arXiv:1810.03993[cs.LG]

    Google Scholar 

  44. Saif I, Ammanath B (2020) ‘Trustworthy AI’ is a framework to help manage unique risk. MIT Technology Review

    Google Scholar 

  45. GOV.UK, Privacy enhancing technologies for trustworthy use of data. https://cdei.blog.gov.uk/2021/02/09/privacy-enhancing-technologies-for-trustworthy-use-of-data/

  46. LEXALYTICS (2021) Bias in AI and machine learning: sources and solutions. 30 Oct 2021. https://www.lexalytics.com/lexablog/bias-in-ai-machine-learning

  47. Hickman E, Petrin M (2021) Trustworthy AI and corporate governance: the EU’s ethics guidelines for trustworthy artificial intelligence from a company law perspective. Springer

    Google Scholar 

  48. Sero D, Zaidi A, Li J et al (2019) Facial recognition from DNA using face-to-DNA classifiers. Nature, 2557

    Google Scholar 

  49. Talagala N (2019) ML Integrity: four production pillars for trustworthy AI. Forbes, 29 Jan 2019

    Google Scholar 

  50. Joshi N (2019) How we can build trustworthy AI. Forbes, 30 July 2019

    Google Scholar 

  51. Labbe M, Schmelzer R (2021) AI and climate change: the mixed impact of machine learning. TechTarget,

    Google Scholar 

  52. Masanet E, Shehabi A, Lei N, Smith S, Koomey J (2020) Recalibrating global data center energy-use estimates. Science 367:984–986

    Article  Google Scholar 

  53. Hintemann R (2020) Data centers 2018. Efficiency gains are not enough: Data center energy consumption continues to rise significantly—cloud computing boosts growth

    Google Scholar 

  54. Mullins B (2021) Time to tackle AI’s impact on the environment. Sifted

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mengjun Tao .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Tao, M., Jiang, R., Downs, C. (2022). Ethics of Face Recognition in Smart Cities Toward Trustworthy AI. In: Jiang, R., et al. Big Data Privacy and Security in Smart Cities. Advanced Sciences and Technologies for Security Applications. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04424-3_2

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics