Concerns Swirl Around Facial Recognition Technology

The author takes a lot of photos of her dog, and Google knows.

A couple of years ago, we wrote about privacy issues surrounding emerging facial recognition technologies. In the intervening 700 or so days, the conversation has shifted dramatically. With political upheaval and a renewed commitment to racial justice emerging across the nation, the conversation around facial recognition artificial intelligence has taken on a sense of urgency.

Many people are likely familiar with basic facial recongition AI through their phones. For example, Facebook may alert you to a photo that includes you, uploaded without your knowledge by a friend, through an automated system that asks “Is this you?” Another example is Google Photos, which automatically builds albums of friends, family members, and pets, allowing you to identify them by name for easy searching.

However, the most lucrative markets for this type of tech are law enforcement and defense. In Detroit, the police have recently come under heat for two known instances of Black men being arrested for crimes they didn’t commit on the basis of the department’s facial recognition AI. The Detroit Chief of Police acknowledged the software has an incredible 96% false identification rate, which for some has raised questions about the software’s value to the community. The Detroit Police Department has promised to draft a policy about the use of this tech, which is produced by the company DataWorksPlus. In the meantime, a Congressional inquiry has been launched to examine the two facial recognition programs produced by DataWorksPlus, which are used by law enforcement in at least five states.

Tech companies working to produce this type of software are coming under pressure to stop its sale and production, not just by Congress or justice reform advocates, but by their own employees. One example is IBM, which has removed its general purpose facial recognition offerings from the market, and is urging other companies to do the same.

Arguments against use of facial recognition technology by government entities including law enforcement have previously focused on the inaccuracy of such tech. As we see from Detroit, that remains an issue. However, as this type of AI improves, concern has increasingly begun to shift towards the awesome power of accurate facial recognition tech, and its ability to obliterate privacy. As a result of of this, some local jurisditions have begun to specifically outlaw the use of facial recnognition tech. These municipalities are mostly cities in California and Massachusetts, incuding San Francisco and Boston, but now also include Portland, Maine.

One advancement is that facial recognition AI increasingly focuses on the space immediately around the eyes, so that would-be law-breakers and other evil-doers will struggle more to hide their identities. This also means that wearing a mask while you’re shopping might not stop corporate security from identifying you.

Further reading:

• Compare the efficacy of different facial recognition tech

Celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month

Each year, from September 15 through October 15, the United States recognizes National Hispanic Heritage Month. Texan President Lyndon Johnson first instated National Hispanic Heritage Week in 1968, and President Ronald Regan expanded it to an entire month in 1988.

We begin our celebration on September 15 because that is Independence Day for several Central American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Chile and Mexico mark their Independance Days later that same week. The national month therefore kicks off on the 15th of September, and then runs through the middle of October, when the world, but particularly the Western hemisphere, marks the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the Island of Hispaniola.

While the United States’ official observance of October 12th emphasizes Christopher Columbus and his Italian heritage, the nature of how this day is marked throughout the Americas has evolved significantly in recent years. In Latin America, the day generally celebrates the distinctive ethnic and cultural influences of Hispanic culture.

Further Reading:

• National Park Service

• Fast Facts Celebrating Hispanic Culture from Census.gov

• 2020 National Proclamation

Remote Access to HeinOnline

HeinOnline is consistently recognized as one of the best, most indispensable legal websites, especially for accessing legal scholarship. As the world's largest image-based academic and legal research platform, HeinOnline -- and the Law Journal Library in particular -- provides a wealth of fully searchable content including an extensive archive of legal publications in full-text PDF. 

Not only is the website an incredible respository of information, but so is the HeinOnline app. Within the app, users can access content by citation, browse by volume or collection, navigate using the electronic table of contents or by using the same advanced search tool that makes Hein's website functionality so robust. Users of the HeinOnline app can download articles in PDF format, save them to their devices, or share them with colleagues. And, to make the user experience even better, they can do so remotely, making the full functionality of HeinOnline available to any interested patrons during the library’s closure.

To gain remote access to HeinOnline via the HeinOnline app, first download the program to your device. Click here for Android or here for the iPhone. Then, authenticate your device by accessing the database while connected to the Harris County Guest Wi-Fi network that is available in all Harris County courthouses. Once IP authenticated, your device will be database-enabled from any location for 30 days. At the end of that period, visit the Harris County courthouse complex once again to re-authenticate and never be without access to HeinOnline!

This link to the HeinOnline App User's Guide is a bit dated, but its explanation of how the authentication process works is still valid. If you have any questions, please ask the library staff for assistance. We're happy to help you gain the full benefits of using our resources and to support you in your legal research needs.

Remembering 9/11

Today, September 11, 2020, we remember the tragedy that befell our nation 19 years ago — the attacks on the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon, and a hijacked airplane, United Airlines Flight 93, that crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. We pay tribute to those who lost their lives on that day, as well as those who lives continue to be impacted by the attacks. We recognize the need to preserve the details of this historical inflection point with the following list of resources so that we may never forget.

• 9/11 Memorial and Museum

• 9/11 Living Memorial — VOICES Center for Resilience

• September 11, 2001, Documentary Project — Library of Congress

• September 11, 2001, Web Archive — Library of Congress

• September 11 Digital Archive — American Social History Project

• September 11: Bearing Witness to History — Smithsonian

• The Reckoning — The New York Times

• Story Corps September 11 Initiative — NPR

• Understanding 9/11: A Television News Archive — Internet Archive

• Remembering 9/11 in Pictures — National Geographic

• Blindspot: The Road to 9/11 Podcast — History (podcast)

Virus Snitching: Sign of the Times

It has been demonstrated, and widely reported since May, that near-universal mask wearing at 80% of the population or higher is crucial to flattening the COVID curve. Like Cheerios are part of a balanced breakfast, 80% compliance is effective as a complement to social distancing and excellent hand hygiene: all three are necessary to flatten the curve and get life back to near normal as we wait for a vaccine.

The fact that COVID death rates continue to rise in 30 US states and territories demonstrates how much Americans are struggling to implement solutions like near-universal mask wearing, hand hygiene, and social distancing. So far, roughly 160 days into this crisis, an effective way to get widespread buy-in on these public health initiatives has eluded us.

Person-to-person confrontation has proved unsuccessful and even dangerous, so communities have looked to leadership for norms enforcement. If the carrot of flattening the curve and saving lives won’t do the trick, leaders have increasingly reasoned, maybe the stick of consequence will. We now see many examples: anti-maskers have been arrested, had their businesses fined, and even been threatened with expulsion from elite colleges.

Because those with the authority to enforce cannot be present in all places at all times, they have increasingly relied on average citizens (and students) to “snitch” on people and businesses who refuse to comply. Many municipalities in Texas, including locally, have created hotlines to call to snitch on enemies of hygiene. The City of Frisco faced backlash when it added a feature to its app allowing residents to snitch without even making a call. Some states have created state-wide hotlines. The NBA set up its own hotline to snitch on people violating the now-famous bubble. Some colleges are encouraging student snitches to contact campus police, raising concerns among some that students of color who flout public health initiatives might face disproportionate consequence over white students. All of this puts average people in a difficult position as they have to weigh the value of ending our national COVID crisis against potential personal and societal ramifications of snitching.

Looking to snitch? Click here for who to contact in Harris, Fort Bend, or Galveston counties.