About FRT

Facial Recognition Technology: modern AI

Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) is used to identify or discover individuals by comparing an image of their face to a database of known faces for a match. Related uses of FRT use facial imagery to measure a person's attentiveness, to gauge characteristics like honesty, and to confirm that a person in an image is who they say they are.

The use of FRT is growing due to important technology gains and the ubiquity of cameras in society.

Public and private sector use

While public sector use is gaining momentum, private sector actors are using FRT and related technologies for operations like:

  • identity verification
  • secure-space access control
  • identification of individuals on watchlists
  • controlling regulated public spaces such as casinos
  • monitoring remote workers
  • invigilating online tests
  • conducting and assessing automated employment interviews
  • and proactively identifying customers who enter an establishment

Issues emerging: Discrimination and privacy concerns

Along with these advances, however, concerns surrounding FRT have emerged as critics raise issues not only about the technology itself, but also the implications for the expansion of the “surveillance society”. With the increased application of FRT by private sector actors (as well as public sector entities), researchers and advocates have identified potential discriminatory and privacy concerns. One dominant line of concern relates to potential racial bias in FRT: research has shown that FRT disproportionately affects racialized communities negatively, with the accuracy of FRT significantly lower for persons of colour leading to higher rates of false positive identifications; conversely, FRT’s inaccuracies can reduce its usefulness in service provision, rendering marginalized groups “digitally invisible”. Concerns such as these have led to calls for improved governance of FRT.

 

"Research has shown that FRT disproportionately affects racialized communities negatively"

Increasing regulation required

While FRT continues to be developed and used, and governments work to strengthen their legislative and regulatory responses, the question of public acceptance of FRT is timely and important for ongoing social deliberations about its appropriate use. FRT is likely to become less expensive and easier to deploy as the technology improves, making its application more commonplace. As the COVID-19 pandemic has required a rapid shift towards remote work for knowledge workers, not only will many of us be working, learning, and socializing over video connections for the foreseeable future; this shift will also bring with it increasing use of FRT as part of that move towards increased screen time. Ensuring FRT is used appropriately and inline with the expectations of Canadians should be of primary importance to government.