Why EFF doesn’t support bans on private use of face recognition
14 minute read
An employee at a cafe, which uses a unified biometric facial recognition system for payments, in Moscow, Russia, 25 March 2020, Gavriil GrigorovTASS via Getty Images Instead of a prohibition on private use, EFF supports strict laws to ensure that each of us is empowered to choose if and by whom our faceprints may be collected.
This statement was originally published on eff.org on 20 January 2021.
Government and private use of face recognition technology each present a wealth of concerns. Privacy, safety, and amplification of carceral bias are just some of the reasons why we must ban government use.
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Forecasting the enforcement priorities of the Department of Justice (DOJ) under a new administration is difficult at best. However, the Biden administration is widely expected to be tougher on corporate crime than its predecessor, consistent with the approach of prior Democratic administrations. If that is the case, the DOJ’s policies and priorities over the past four years that have emphasized individual culpability while incentivizing robust corporate compliance programs presumably will continue unchanged. However, Trump administration policies that arguably reflect a more business-friendly approach to corporate prosecutions will likely be revised or abandoned by the new administration, which is expected to more closely scrutinize and aggressively pursue corporate misconduct, including on the part of financial institutions. In addition, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) investigations, a key enforcement area in the
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This week I have been exploring and reviewing the Beny Steinmetz guilty verdict in a Swiss court over the weekend for bribery and corruption in the obtaining of mining rights in Guinea. As reported by the BBC, the corruption was engaged in by the Beny Steinmetz Group (BSRG) which paid $2m to Mamadie Touré, wife of the then Guinean President, Lansana Conté, to help it secure rights to mineral deposits back in 2007. The corruption was memorialized in contracts which specified the agreements for BSRG to make payments and transfer shares in the mine to Mamadie Touré. As the quid pro quo for these commission payments, Mamadie Touré would take all necessary steps to have BSRG awarded the rights to the Simandou deposit, which had been previously awarded to Rio Tinto. Additionally, a further $2m would be dispersed among other people to facilitate the acquisition of the rights.
JUDITH FEBRUARY: Untangling SA s toxic web of money and politics will be hard
opinion
‘Hard things are hard’ - Plaque on former US President Barack Obama’s Resolute desk during his time in office.
The vexed issue of political party funding and the sustained advocacy on the matter came full circle last week when President Ramaphosa signed a Proclamation for the commencement of the
Political Party Funding Act, 6 of 2018, which regulates public and private funding of political parties. The Act comes into effect on 1 April 2021.
It was also somewhat poignant to think back to 2017 when then-ANC Chief Whip and now the late Jackson Mthembu said, “We are late but better late than never,” as he announced that he would “soon” be tabling a motion for the establishment of a multi-party ad hoc committee to develop legislation for increased public funding of political parties and the regulation of private funding to political parties.