Re:Amazon defeated Rekognition shareholder revolt by a large...
by philwelch on Wednesday May 29, 2019 @05:19PM
(#20045614)
> Law enforcement is general is not good at self-accountability. That accountability has to be rigorously enforced from the outside.
Absolutely. One major positive outcome of the OJ Simpson trial was how Simpson's attorneys completely trashed the police handling of forensic evidence on a national stage, forcing law enforcement across the country to raise their game.
Re:Amazon defeated Rekognition shareholder revolt by a large...
by JohnFen on Wednesday May 29, 2019 @04:28PM
(#20045023)
> That accountability has to be rigorously enforced from the outside.
I agree. But the reason that we don't have that right now isn't related to whether or not computers are involved, and introducing algorithms won't solve that situation.
The reason that police accountability is weak is political.
Re:Amazon defeated Rekognition shareholder revolt by a large...
by int_19h on Sunday June 02, 2019 @03:52AM
(#20074138)
Sure. But until we resolve the accountability, we shouldn't increase the power of law enforcement. The more unaccountable power they have, the more it will be abused, and the graver the abuses.
With algorithms, I think it can be done... but given how subtle the negative effects can be, the process must be stringent and err on the side of caution. In other words, any algorithm should be assumed to be biased until proven otherwise, and with a relatively high bar at that. There should be clear technical standards for what constitutes a valid proof. The testing process should be reproducible by third parties. And there should be a straightforward way to challenge either the process itself, or its results in any particular case.
In practice, given how low our bar for law enforcement accountability is today in other cases - including those where people die or are badly hurt - I'd say that we need to fix those issues first before talking about face recognition and its regulation in this context. And until then, it should be off-limits, because the potential for abuse is so high.