A State (New York) Becomes the First to Suspend Facial Recognition Technology in Schools

route-fifty.com

Posted by solstice in Privacy

From the article:

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said there are “serious and legitimate privacy concerns” with the technology—but only prohibited its use until 2022.

The new law doesn’t create a permanent ban on the use of facial recognition, but prohibits its use in public or private schools until at least July 1, 2022. After that point, the state education commissioner could approve its use following a study on the use of biometric identifying technology. The state Office of Information Technology and Education Department are directed to collect feedback from teachers, parents, and experts in data privacy and school safety issues.

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abralelie wrote

There was facial recognition tech in school? Are all children assumed to be guilty now? Just throw them in jail at birth then.

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abralelie wrote

There was facial recognition tech in school? Are all children assumed to be guilty now? Just throw them in jail at birth then.

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Wahaha wrote

What would the use case be, anyway? Maybe like what they did in China, where every student has a dedicated face camera that notices when the student stops paying attention. A teacher can't look at every student at the same time or all the time, but a camera can. That would be a really useful application.

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txt wrote

That sounds like a terrible idea. Everyone should have the right to privacy.

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Wahaha wrote

A school is a public institution, though, and the classroom isn't somewhere you have privacy in the first place. Because of corona lots of children had classes from home with a camera pointed at their face, anyway, so I don't see a camera pointing at your face during class as a privacy issue.

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txt wrote

The reason people are OK with video meetings is due to control over your environment. You can disable you camera. You can spoof it with software.

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abralelie wrote

It's a public institution you are forced to go to.

Because of corona lots of children had classes from home with a camera pointed at their face, anyway

Once again, forced. Forcing people to do one thing and then justifying something else because "obviously they're OK with the latter" is not a very good argument.

Do you think forcing somebody to look at a camera means:

  • they will comprehend what's being said
  • they will hear what is being
  • that they are paying attention
  • that the material they are being show is good

?

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Wahaha wrote

So security cams at a train station aren't an issue because technically no one is forced to use this public facility? Whether someone is forced to attend school or not doesn't change that a school is part of your public life, not of your private life. Teachers and other students will be able to look at you, what difference does it make whether a camera is pointed at you or not?

No one is forced to turn on their own webcam, either. It's just a thing that benefits everyone, so most people do it. Reading peoples faces is very helpful in conversations, just like it is to hear their voice.

The point isn't to have students look at a camera, it's to have the camera look at the student. The benefit is that software can notice when a student stops paying attention. Or discover cheating during tests. Or bullying. Teachers can work with this feedback to improve and students can be reprimanded based on this.

It's not very helpful for other things, but during my time I would have very much appreciated something like this, if it could help in suppressing the students not interested in learning. Those were the biggest obstacles back in elementary school. It is very unfortunate that there are no immediate repercussions for bad students. Pointing a camera at each students face could act first as a deterrent towards bad behaviour and second as evidence for the consequences the student will experience, especially for their parents.

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