Facial Recognition Systems Bring Privacy Concerns

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This is the VOA Special English Technology Report, from http://voaspecialenglish.com | http://facebook.com/voalearningenglish Today we take another look at facial recognition systems. These can tag friends in Facebook photos or help police identify suspects in the recent riots in Britain. Kurt Roemer is chief security strategist for Citrix Systems in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He says technology makes it easier than ever for governments to identify and target people. "And it is very much a fine line between effective law enforcement and privacy."Kristene Unsworth researches information policy at Drexel College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She says she is concerned that governments and police are increasingly using facial recognition software without clearly defined policies. "There is so much secrecy around this information that we don't really know how these kind of images or other sorts of personal data points are being used, how long the information is being retained." Questions like these are part of a larger debate about privacy and free speech. After the riots, British Prime Minister David Cameron raised the possibility of interfering with social networks. He said the question was whether it would be right to stop people from communicating "when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality."China's official news agency Xinhua says the British government "recognized that a balance needs to be struck between freedom and the monitoring of social media t

Published 2011-09-28 · Watch on YouTube ↗
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