Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2025
ISSN
2724-5969
Publisher
Aracne Editrice
Language
en-US
Abstract
This article argues that facial recognition technology is the most dangerous surveillance tool ever invented. Given the unique threats this morally suspect tool poses to privacy, civil liberties, human flourishing, and democracy, the only appropriate response is a ban. To justify our position, we explain why facial recognition is distinctive among biometrics, clarify how even seemingly benign and positive uses of the technology can trigger dangerous normalization dynamics, and pinpoint why current United States laws (with reverberations in the EU’s AI Act) are designed to accelerate a slippery slope that makes mass surveillance nearly inevitable. Our most fundamental contribution lies in demonstrating how the concept of “obscurity” connects all three arguments: facial recognition algorithms technologically eviscerate obscurity, normalization psychologically undermines it, and the law doctrinally abandons it - a perfect storm that only prohibition can stop.
Recommended Citation
Woodrow Hartzog, Evan Selinger & Judy Hyojoo Rhee,
Normalizing Facial Recognition Technology and the End of Obscurity
,
6
European Review of Digital Administration & Law
163
(2025).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/4108
Included in
Computer Law Commons, Internet Law Commons, Law and Society Commons, Privacy Law Commons, Science and Technology Law Commons
