Who Owns Your Face?

The use of facial-recognition technology is surging. Can privacy laws catch up?

- Lisa Lacy

IN 2017, nearly 17 million Americans had their identities stolen.

If they followed the Federal Trade Commission’s recommended 40-page recovery process, they had to contact the companies where fraud occurred; place fraud alerts with credit bureaus; review their credit reports; report the identity theft to the FTC and their local police departments; close new charges; remove bogus charges; correct their credit reports; and add extended fraud alerts or credit freezes.

It’s a nightmare, right? Now imagine it’s your face that needs to be recovered. With the use of facial recognition soaring, and little to no laws on the books regulating it, identity theft is poised to take on a whole new dimension. Even technology companies, which are notorious for prizing innovation above privacy concerns, are taking a beat. As Google CEO Sundar Pichai noted in an interview last month with The Washington Post, “I think tech has to realize it just can’t build it and then fix it.”

Think about it: You’ve been able to use your face as your passcode ever since the iPhone X came out in 2017. Then Google convinced more than 5 million Android users alone to share their faces to see what works of art they resemble, while a growing number of stadiums allow fans to use biometrics instead of tickets (but so far, it’s still just Seattle fans who can use them to buy beer).

And those are just the instances of facial recognition that have been made public. There are plenty of other times consumers may not be aware the technology is in use—or been given the chance to provide consent.

Convenience, but at what cost?

The travel industry was among the first to embrace facial recognition, using it to expedite and enhance the customer experience.