What you need to know about face surveillance
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0:01 - 0:03How many of you
have ever heard someone say -
0:03 - 0:04privacy is dead?
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0:04 - 0:05Raise your hand.
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0:06 - 0:08How many of you have heard someone say
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0:08 - 0:12they don't care about their privacy
because they don't have anything to hide? -
0:13 - 0:14Go on.
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0:14 - 0:15(Laughter)
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0:16 - 0:20Now, how many of you
use any kind of encryption software? -
0:20 - 0:21Raise your hand.
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0:21 - 0:25Or a password
to protect an online account? -
0:26 - 0:29Or curtains or blinds
on your windows at home? -
0:29 - 0:31(Laughter)
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0:31 - 0:33OK, so that's everyone, I think.
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0:33 - 0:34(Laughter)
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0:35 - 0:37So why do you do these things?
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0:37 - 0:38My guess is,
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0:38 - 0:41it's because you care about your privacy.
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0:41 - 0:44The idea that privacy is dead is a myth.
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0:44 - 0:47The idea that people
don't care about their privacy -
0:47 - 0:48because "they have nothing to hide"
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0:48 - 0:50or they've done nothing wrong
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0:50 - 0:51is also a myth.
-
0:52 - 0:56I'm guessing that you would not want
to publicly share on the internet, -
0:57 - 0:58for the world to see,
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0:58 - 1:00all of your medical records.
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1:00 - 1:03Or your search histories
from your phone or your computer. -
1:04 - 1:05And I bet
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1:06 - 1:08that if the government
wanted to put a chip in your brain -
1:08 - 1:13to transmit every one of your thoughts
to a centralized government computer, -
1:13 - 1:14you would balk at that.
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1:14 - 1:17(Laughter)
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1:17 - 1:19That's because you care
about your privacy, -
1:19 - 1:20like every human being.
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1:21 - 1:24So, our world has changed fast.
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1:24 - 1:28And today, there is understandably
a lot of confusion -
1:28 - 1:31about what privacy is and why it matters.
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1:32 - 1:34Privacy is not secrecy.
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1:34 - 1:36It's control.
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1:37 - 1:41I share information with my doctor
about my body and my health, -
1:41 - 1:43expecting that she is not
going to turn around -
1:43 - 1:46and share that information
with my parents, -
1:46 - 1:49or my boss or my kids.
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1:50 - 1:52That information is private, not secret.
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1:53 - 1:56I'm in control over how
that information is shared. -
1:58 - 2:01You've probably heard people say
that there's a fundamental tension -
2:01 - 2:03between privacy on the one hand
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2:03 - 2:05and safety on the other.
-
2:06 - 2:08But the technologies
that advance our privacy -
2:09 - 2:10also advance our safety.
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2:10 - 2:13Think about fences, door locks,
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2:13 - 2:15curtains on our windows, passwords,
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2:15 - 2:17encryption software.
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2:18 - 2:19All of these technologies
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2:19 - 2:23simultaneously protect
our privacy and our safety. -
2:25 - 2:28Dragnet surveillance,
on the other hand, protects neither. -
2:29 - 2:31In recent years,
-
2:31 - 2:34the federal government
tasked a group of experts -
2:34 - 2:37called The Privacy and Civil Liberties
Oversight Board -
2:37 - 2:40with examining post-9/11
government surveillance programs, -
2:40 - 2:42dragnet surveillance programs.
-
2:42 - 2:45Those experts could not find
a single example -
2:45 - 2:49of that dragnet surveillance
advancing any safety -- -
2:49 - 2:52didn't identify or stop
a single terrorist attack. -
2:53 - 2:56You know what that information
was useful for, though? -
2:56 - 2:59Helping NSA employees
spy on their romantic interests. -
2:59 - 3:01(Laughter)
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3:01 - 3:02(Audience: Wow.)
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3:03 - 3:05Another example is closer to home.
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3:05 - 3:07So millions of people
across the United States and the world -
3:07 - 3:10are adopting so-called
"smart home" devices, -
3:10 - 3:12like internet-connected
surveillance cameras. -
3:13 - 3:16But we know that any technology
connected to the internet -
3:16 - 3:17can be hacked.
-
3:19 - 3:20And so if a hacker
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3:20 - 3:24gets into your internet-connected
surveillance camera at home, -
3:24 - 3:26they can watch you
and your family coming and going, -
3:26 - 3:29finding just the right time to strike.
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3:30 - 3:32You know what can't be hacked remotely?
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3:32 - 3:34Curtains.
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3:34 - 3:35(Laughter)
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3:35 - 3:36Fences.
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3:36 - 3:37Door locks.
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3:37 - 3:38(Laughter)
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3:38 - 3:41Privacy is not the enemy of safety.
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3:41 - 3:43It is its guarantor.
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3:44 - 3:48Nonetheless, we daily face
a propaganda onslaught -
3:48 - 3:52telling us that we have to give up
some privacy in exchange for safety -
3:52 - 3:54through surveillance programs.
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3:55 - 3:59Face surveillance is the most dangerous
of these technologies. -
4:00 - 4:05There are two primary ways today
governments use technologies like this. -
4:05 - 4:07One is face recognition.
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4:07 - 4:10That's to identify someone in an image.
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4:10 - 4:12The second is face surveillance,
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4:12 - 4:14which can be used in concert
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4:14 - 4:17with surveillance-camera
networks and databases -
4:17 - 4:21to create records of all people's
public movements, -
4:21 - 4:23habits and associations,
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4:23 - 4:26effectively creating a digital panopticon.
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4:27 - 4:29This is a panopticon.
-
4:29 - 4:33It's a prison designed to allow
a few guards in the center -
4:33 - 4:37to monitor everything happening
in the cells around the perimeter. -
4:37 - 4:42The people in those prison cells
can't see inside the guard tower, -
4:42 - 4:46but the guards can see
into every inch of those cells. -
4:47 - 4:49The idea here
-
4:49 - 4:52is that if the people
in those prison cells -
4:52 - 4:54know they're being watched all the time,
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4:54 - 4:55or could be,
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4:55 - 4:57they'll behave accordingly.
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4:57 - 5:01Similarly, face surveillance
enables a centralized authority -- -
5:01 - 5:03in this case, the state --
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5:03 - 5:06to monitor the totality
of human movement and association -
5:06 - 5:08in public space.
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5:08 - 5:09And here's what it looks like
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5:09 - 5:11in real life.
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5:11 - 5:14In this case, it's not a guard in a tower,
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5:14 - 5:17but rather a police analyst
in a spy center. -
5:18 - 5:21The prison expands beyond its walls,
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5:21 - 5:23encompassing everyone,
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5:23 - 5:25everywhere, all the time.
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5:26 - 5:27In a free society,
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5:28 - 5:30this should terrify us all.
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5:32 - 5:34For decades now, we've watched cop shows
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5:34 - 5:36that push a narrative that says
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5:36 - 5:40technologies like face surveillance
ultimately serve the public good. -
5:40 - 5:43But real life is not a cop drama.
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5:44 - 5:46The bad guy didn't always do it,
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5:46 - 5:49the cops definitely
aren't always the good guys -
5:49 - 5:52and the technology doesn't always work.
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5:53 - 5:54Take the case of Steve Talley,
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5:55 - 5:57a financial analyst from Colorado.
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5:57 - 6:01In 2015, Talley was arrested,
and he was charged with bank robbery -
6:01 - 6:04on the basis of an error
in a facial recognition system. -
6:05 - 6:06Talley fought that case
-
6:06 - 6:08and he eventually was cleared
of those charges, -
6:08 - 6:11but while he was being
persecuted by the state, -
6:11 - 6:15he lost his house, his job and his kids.
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6:16 - 6:18Steve Talley's case is an example
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6:18 - 6:20of what can happen
when the technology fails. -
6:21 - 6:25But face surveillance is just as dangerous
when it works as advertized. -
6:27 - 6:30Just consider how trivial it would be
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6:30 - 6:32for a government agency
to put a surveillance camera -
6:32 - 6:36outside a building where people meet
for Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. -
6:37 - 6:39They could connect that camera
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6:39 - 6:41to a face-surveillance algorithm
and a database, -
6:41 - 6:43press a button and sit back and collect
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6:43 - 6:47a record of every person
receiving treatment for alcoholism. -
6:48 - 6:51It would be just as easy
for a government agency -
6:51 - 6:53to use this technology
to automatically identify -
6:53 - 6:56every person who attended
the Women's March -
6:56 - 6:58or a Black Lives Matter protest.
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6:59 - 7:03Even the technology industry
is aware of the gravity of this problem. -
7:04 - 7:08Microsoft's president Brad Smith
has called on Congress to intervene. -
7:09 - 7:11Google, for its part,
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7:11 - 7:14has publicly declined
to ship a face surveillance product, -
7:14 - 7:18in part because of these grave
human and civil rights concerns. -
7:19 - 7:20And that's a good thing.
-
7:21 - 7:22Because ultimately,
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7:22 - 7:26protecting our open society
is much more important -
7:26 - 7:27than corporate profit.
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7:29 - 7:31The ACLU's nationwide campaign
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7:31 - 7:33to get the government to pump the brakes
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7:33 - 7:36on the adoption
of this dangerous technology -
7:36 - 7:39has prompted reasonable questions
from thoughtful people. -
7:40 - 7:43What makes this technology
in particular so dangerous? -
7:44 - 7:46Why can't we just regulate it?
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7:46 - 7:48In short, why the alarm?
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7:49 - 7:54Face surveillance is uniquely dangerous
for two related reasons. -
7:54 - 7:57One is the nature
of the technology itself. -
7:57 - 8:00And the second is that our system
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8:00 - 8:04fundamentally lacks the oversight
and accountability mechanisms -
8:04 - 8:05that would be necessary
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8:05 - 8:09to ensure it would not be abused
in the government's hands. -
8:11 - 8:15First, face surveillance enables
a totalizing form of surveillance -
8:15 - 8:17never before possible.
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8:18 - 8:22Every single person's every visit
to a friend's house, -
8:22 - 8:24a government office,
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8:24 - 8:26a house of worship,
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8:26 - 8:27a Planned Parenthood,
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8:27 - 8:29a cannabis shop,
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8:29 - 8:30a strip club;
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8:31 - 8:35every single person's public movements,
habits and associations -
8:35 - 8:37documented and catalogued,
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8:37 - 8:39not on one day, but on every day,
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8:39 - 8:41merely with the push of a button.
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8:42 - 8:45This kind of totalizing mass surveillance
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8:45 - 8:48fundamentally threatens
what it means to live in a free society. -
8:48 - 8:51Our freedom of speech,
freedom of association, -
8:51 - 8:53freedom of religion,
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8:53 - 8:54freedom of the press,
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8:54 - 8:55our privacy,
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8:55 - 8:57our right to be left alone.
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8:58 - 9:00You may be thinking,
-
9:00 - 9:03"OK, come on, but there are tons
of ways the government can spy on us." -
9:03 - 9:05And yes, it's true,
-
9:05 - 9:07the government can track us
through our cell phones, -
9:07 - 9:11but if I want to go to get an abortion,
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9:11 - 9:12or attend a political meeting,
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9:12 - 9:17or even just call in sick
and play hooky and go to the beach ... -
9:17 - 9:18(Laughter)
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9:18 - 9:20I can leave my phone at home.
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9:21 - 9:23I cannot leave my face at home.
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9:25 - 9:28And that brings me
to my second primary concern: -
9:28 - 9:31How we might meaningfully
regulate this technology. -
9:32 - 9:36Today, if the government wants to know
where I was last week, -
9:36 - 9:41they can't just hop into a time machine
and go back in time and follow me. -
9:42 - 9:44And they also, the local police right now,
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9:44 - 9:48don't maintain any centralized
system of tracking, -
9:48 - 9:51where they're cataloging every person's
public movements all the time, -
9:51 - 9:54just in case that information
some day becomes useful. -
9:55 - 9:58Today, if the government
wants to know where I was last week, -
9:58 - 10:00or last month or last year,
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10:00 - 10:02they have to go to a judge, get a warrant
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10:02 - 10:04and then serve that warrant
on my phone company, -
10:04 - 10:08which by the way, has a financial interest
in protecting my privacy. -
10:09 - 10:11With face surveillance,
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10:11 - 10:13no such limitations exist.
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10:13 - 10:18This is technology that is 100 percent
controlled by the government itself. -
10:19 - 10:23So how would a warrant requirement
work in this context? -
10:24 - 10:26Is the government going to go to a judge
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10:26 - 10:27and get a warrant,
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10:28 - 10:30and then serve the warrant on themselves?
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10:30 - 10:32That would be like me giving you my diary,
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10:32 - 10:35and saying, "Here,
you can hold on to this forever, -
10:35 - 10:37but you can't read it
until I say it's OK." -
10:38 - 10:39So what can we do?
-
10:41 - 10:43The only answer to the threat
-
10:43 - 10:47posed by the government's use
of face surveillance -
10:47 - 10:52is to deny the government the capacity
to violate the public's trust, -
10:52 - 10:54by denying the government the ability
-
10:54 - 10:57to build these in-house
face-surveillance networks. -
10:58 - 11:00And that's exactly what we're doing.
-
11:01 - 11:04The ACLU is part of a nationwide campaign
-
11:04 - 11:08to pump the brakes on the government's use
of this dangerous technology. -
11:08 - 11:10We've already been successful,
-
11:10 - 11:13from San Francisco
to Somerville, Massachusetts, -
11:13 - 11:15we have passed municipal bans
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11:15 - 11:17on the government's
use of this technology. -
11:17 - 11:20And plenty of other communities
here in Massachusetts -
11:20 - 11:21and across the country
-
11:21 - 11:22are debating similar measures.
-
11:22 - 11:26Some people have told me
that this movement is bound to fail. -
11:27 - 11:28That ultimately,
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11:28 - 11:30merely because the technology exists,
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11:30 - 11:33it will be deployed in every context
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11:33 - 11:36by every government everywhere.
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11:38 - 11:40Privacy is dead, right?
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11:40 - 11:42So the narrative goes.
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11:43 - 11:45Well, I refuse to accept that narrative.
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11:45 - 11:47And you should, too.
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11:48 - 11:52We can't allow Jeff Bezos or the FBI
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11:52 - 11:56to determine the boundaries
of our freedoms in the 21st century. -
11:57 - 12:00If we live in a democracy,
-
12:00 - 12:02we are in the driver's seat,
-
12:02 - 12:04shaping our collective future.
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12:05 - 12:07We are at a fork in the road right now.
-
12:07 - 12:10We can either continue
with business as usual, -
12:10 - 12:14allowing governments to adopt and deploy
these technologies unchecked, -
12:14 - 12:17in our communities, our streets
and our schools, -
12:17 - 12:22or we can take bold action now
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12:22 - 12:26to press pause on the government's use
of face surveillance, -
12:26 - 12:28protect our privacy
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12:28 - 12:31and to build a safer, freer future
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12:31 - 12:33for all of us.
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12:33 - 12:34Thank you.
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12:34 - 12:36(Applause and cheers)
- Title:
- What you need to know about face surveillance
- Speaker:
- Kade Crockford
- Description:
-
Privacy isn't dead, but face surveillance technology might kill it, says civil rights advocate Kade Crockford. In an eye-opening talk, Kade outlines the startling reasons why this invasive technology -- powered by often-flawed facial recognition databases that track people without their knowledge -- poses unprecedented threats to your fundamental rights. Learn what can be done to ban government use before it's too late.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 12:49
Erin Gregory edited English subtitles for What you need to know about face surveillance | ||
Erin Gregory approved English subtitles for What you need to know about face surveillance | ||
Erin Gregory edited English subtitles for What you need to know about face surveillance | ||
Krystian Aparta accepted English subtitles for What you need to know about face surveillance | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for What you need to know about face surveillance | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for What you need to know about face surveillance | ||
Ivana Korom edited English subtitles for What you need to know about face surveillance | ||
Ivana Korom edited English subtitles for What you need to know about face surveillance |