Facial recognition technology in the private sector isn’t going anywhere. No longer only for security purposes, companies like Clear market their facial recognition products as transformative for “frictionless” VIP-like customer experiences by, for instance, allowing people to sail through ticket lines at airports and Major League Baseball games.
The technology itself, however, is flawed in many ways. On the one hand, this could present fertile ground for litigation. On the other, society seems more willing than ever to adopt new technologies and allow greater access to personal and biometric data. In 2022, Tiktok was the most downloaded app worldwide. At the same time, it has been banned from mobile devices issued by the federal government because of privacy concerns. Nowadays, 97% of people will accept Terms of Service without reading a single word—potentially handing over their own biometric data and likely troves of other personal information in exchange for AI-powered selfie filters.
