Once again people worried about their privacy and safety of personal data are hearing the tired old (and debunked) platitude that if they have done nothing wrong, “they have nothing to fear.”
This time in Australia, where facial recognition technology is being deployed in large retail chains such as Woolworths and Coles, joined recently by Bunnings, which reports say angered shoppers who found out that their faces and license plates may be scanned – a part of a wider the push to expand the use of biometric surveillance.
Not surprisingly, however, Phil Thomson, the founder and CEO of a company that produces the software used in these stores – called Auror – is attempting to persuade Australians their privacy is under no threat whatsoever.
It is Thomson who thought it was a good idea to shore up his argument that Auror was developed with a “privacy-by-design approach” by going for the “… nothing to fear” argument.
But the Australian Federal Police don’t seem to have as much faith in Auror’s alleged privacy friendliness as they suspended its use awaiting a review. This decision was made in the wake of a Crikey probe that sparked fears of privacy violations, the Daily Mail reported.
However, Australian retailers – reportedly at this point some 40 percent of them – are eager to take advantage of Auror’s promise to protect their “profits, people and property” despite the misgivings.
Thomson’s argument is that law-abiding citizens’ privacy is safe simply because Auror is not a type of camera or CCTV, but merely a “tool” which store employees can use to “capture what’s happened” in case of shoplifting, theft, etc.
He went on to say that Auror is also safer security-wise than previous methods used for the same purpose, since it uses encryption to – share data with approved police “and other users.”
Another controversial way the company thinks is a good way to instill confidence in people is mentioning “preventing crime before it happens.”
Thomson seems to have realized that while clients might love such a “feature,” as advertised on the company’s website, everybody else needs reassurance.
“When we talk about preventing crime they take it to mean prediction, but what it means is allowing stores to know who’s offended in the area,” he is quoted as saying.
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