Facial Recognition: A Lucrative and Sensible Business

In 2016, Nice was hit by terrorist attacks, in a surge to create a safer environment, the city mayor began collaborating with diverse security companies. In this continuity, their administration launched the project “SafeCity”, and started to collaborate with the controversial firm, Oosto(Dubedout, 2020).
Oosto is an Israeli company specializing in facial recognition, powered by artificial intelligence. Oosto’s technology has successfully transformed surveillance systems from “passive cameras into proactive security systems” (Lunden, 2021). Multinationals, such as BP, have been very interested in Oosto services (Dave & Dastin, 2021), to gain security over their installations and staff. Oosto has demonstrated to be a very successful company, following a capital raise of $235 million by Softbank and Eldrige (Lunden, 2021). However, despite that this sector appears very lucrative, the question of abuse towards minorities is especially relevant.
The Business and Human Rights Resource Center have investigated companies that have facilitated human rights abuse on minorities (Skelton, 2022). Their conclusion indicates that several firms, including Oosto, have failed to operate with transparency and did set up sufficient grievance procedures for external people who were affected by their goods (Skelton, 2022). To respond to the abuse, the Canadian authorities have labeled Oosto’s facial recognition as “illegal” and banned the technology from their territory (Lunden, 2021). In the United States, this technology still appears to be sensible as it has been conducted in to arrest of dozens of innocents (Donato, 2022). Numerous privacy concerns have been raised in the implementation of the surveillance system. The lack of safeguards guaranteeing our data protection threatens our freedom (The Editorial Board Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2022).
Therefore, Oosto implementation represents a direct to the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The adoption of such technology appears to be still too early, and it negatively impacts our freedom.

Source:
Dave, P., & Dastin, J. (2021, April 20). Exclusive why a U.S. Hospital and Oil Company turned to facial recognition. Reuters. Retrieved October 6, 2022, from https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/exclusive-why-us-hospital-oil-company-turned-facial-recognition-2021-04-20/
Donato, D. (2022, October 5). After dozens of wrongful arrests, a new bill is cracking down on facial recognition tech for law enforcement. dot.LA. Retrieved October 6, 2022, from https://dot.la/facial-recognition-new-bill-2658401500.html?utm_campaign=post-teaser&utm_content=nxw20xgw
Dubedout, C. (2020, March 11). Nice “safe city” : An acceleration of experiments for three years. AIregulation.com. Retrieved October 6, 2022, from https://ai-regulation.com/safe-city-project-in-nice-testing-facial-recognition/
The Editorial Board Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. (2022, September 28). Editorial: Ban facial recognition until legal safeguards are in place. Gazette. Retrieved October 6, 2022, from https://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/editorials/2022/09/28/facial-recognition-privacy-law-enforcement-drone-camera-police-surveillance-clearview-ai-pittsburgh/stories/202209280032
Lunden, I. (2021, July 7). AnyVision, the controversial facial recognition startup, has raised $235m led by Softbank and Eldridge. TechCrunch. Retrieved October 6, 2022, from https://techcrunch.com/2021/07/07/anyvision-the-controversial-facial-recognition-startup-has-raised-235m-led-by-softbank-and-eldridge/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAJR-_L4cUpwChmU3ADr5vnvVZbwY4d8b7Suhh2gc0i-MflAsLBOJzTpY3H0HVwmOv9JDYK8Vr2zudSAPrVNYJAlMjZLHpZJdM2nSJS-yx4K3dWQXfulsI7B5VOpUX9QCIXKKOc-C1dL0e0zmhPcrqhj4LqmuOBBv0UEmtos7a5yv
Skelton, S. K. (2022, September 30). Surveillance Tech firms complicit in MENA human rights abuses. ComputerWeekly.com. Retrieved October 6, 2022, from https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252525584/Surveillance-tech-firms-complicit-in-MENA-human-rights-abuses