The Cyber Defense eMagazine March Edition for 2024

Relying on the Unreliable
The Hidden Costs of Facial Recognition Technology
By Tinglong Dai, Bernard T. Ferrari Professor of Business, The Carey Business School at Johns
Hopkins University
With generative AI dominating the tech world's attention, facial recognition looms like a long, frightening
shadow. The way it is trained and used, it is a force that is changing the boundaries of personal freedom
and privacy. The training process uses a wide range of data sources, including images posted online by
users, to build a detailed, often unreliable picture of who we are and what we do. The use of such
unreliable technology is even more questionable.
Not only does this technology try to recognize us, but the way it's trained, often using data collected by
bots that scour the internet, find every photo you post online, and match your face to every other
representation of your face they can find, it can easily infiltrate our lives and peer into the most private
parts of them. Our simple walk past a security camera or an Instagram photo can be turned into a file of
our personal, legal, and financial records by piecing together our digital footprints, often mixing ours with
those of others. The consequences can be just as swift and frightening.
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