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San Francisco recently became the first city in the US to ban the use of facial recognition software by city agencies. (There's a second vote next week, but it is considered just a formality.) A similar ban is also making its way through the system in Boston.
I thought the following quote by Aaron Peskin in the New York Times was an interesting one, because it speaks to some of the growing tensions between tech, policy, and city building:
“I think part of San Francisco being the real and perceived headquarters for all things tech also comes with a responsibility for its local legislators,” Mr. Peskin said. “We have an outsize responsibility to regulate the excesses of technology precisely because they are headquartered here.”
I can appreciate both sides of this argument.
For those concerned about crime and safety, facial recognition promises more effective policing. That's why this technology is already used at many airports, including SFO. (Because it's under federal jurisdiction, it won't be impacted by this ban.)
At the same time, there are legitimate concerns related to the large-scale collection of personally identifiable data. And it is this same concern that is fueling the debates here in Toronto around what Sidewalk Labs is up to along the waterfront.
I am not an expert on this particular topic (or many topics for that matter). But if you're a regular reader of this blog, you will know that I believe in innovation and I believe in progress.
However, I also believe that it is important and healthy for us to be having these debates. Because what I do know is that I wouldn't want Toronto to become Shenzhen. I wouldn't want to jaywalk across the street and have facial recognition software automatically send a ticket to my phone and post my photo to a "wall of shame."
That doesn't sound like a very fun city.
Photo by Chris Leipelt on Unsplash
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydPqKhgh9Mg
I just finished watching this Bloomberg video on Shenzhen, called "Inside China's High-Tech Dystopia." The video obviously has a particular point of view, but there are parts of it that I wasn't overly fussed about, such as the push toward increased factory automation. Jobs evolve. We used to have elevator operators. Now we don't. Presumably those people found other empoyment.
What stood out to me was Shenzhen's solution to jaywalking. They use cameras, facial recognization software, and a "wall of shame" to fine and then discourage people from illegally crossing a street ever again. One guy in the video explains how he once had the fine automatically withdrawn from his WeChat account. No authorization required. And it happened within seconds following the infraction.
That feels unsettling. (If you only want to watch the jaywalking part, skip ahead to 5:35 in the video.)
Matt Daniels over at The Pudding recently visualized the world’s population in this spiky 3D map. You need to take a look. Better on desktop.
The data is from 2015, but you can also compare it to and show the change from 1990.
Here is the Greater Toronto and Hamilton region (16.8 million people reside in this screen grab):
San Francisco recently became the first city in the US to ban the use of facial recognition software by city agencies. (There's a second vote next week, but it is considered just a formality.) A similar ban is also making its way through the system in Boston.
I thought the following quote by Aaron Peskin in the New York Times was an interesting one, because it speaks to some of the growing tensions between tech, policy, and city building:
“I think part of San Francisco being the real and perceived headquarters for all things tech also comes with a responsibility for its local legislators,” Mr. Peskin said. “We have an outsize responsibility to regulate the excesses of technology precisely because they are headquartered here.”
I can appreciate both sides of this argument.
For those concerned about crime and safety, facial recognition promises more effective policing. That's why this technology is already used at many airports, including SFO. (Because it's under federal jurisdiction, it won't be impacted by this ban.)
At the same time, there are legitimate concerns related to the large-scale collection of personally identifiable data. And it is this same concern that is fueling the debates here in Toronto around what Sidewalk Labs is up to along the waterfront.
I am not an expert on this particular topic (or many topics for that matter). But if you're a regular reader of this blog, you will know that I believe in innovation and I believe in progress.
However, I also believe that it is important and healthy for us to be having these debates. Because what I do know is that I wouldn't want Toronto to become Shenzhen. I wouldn't want to jaywalk across the street and have facial recognition software automatically send a ticket to my phone and post my photo to a "wall of shame."
That doesn't sound like a very fun city.
Photo by Chris Leipelt on Unsplash
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydPqKhgh9Mg
I just finished watching this Bloomberg video on Shenzhen, called "Inside China's High-Tech Dystopia." The video obviously has a particular point of view, but there are parts of it that I wasn't overly fussed about, such as the push toward increased factory automation. Jobs evolve. We used to have elevator operators. Now we don't. Presumably those people found other empoyment.
What stood out to me was Shenzhen's solution to jaywalking. They use cameras, facial recognization software, and a "wall of shame" to fine and then discourage people from illegally crossing a street ever again. One guy in the video explains how he once had the fine automatically withdrawn from his WeChat account. No authorization required. And it happened within seconds following the infraction.
That feels unsettling. (If you only want to watch the jaywalking part, skip ahead to 5:35 in the video.)
Matt Daniels over at The Pudding recently visualized the world’s population in this spiky 3D map. You need to take a look. Better on desktop.
The data is from 2015, but you can also compare it to and show the change from 1990.
Here is the Greater Toronto and Hamilton region (16.8 million people reside in this screen grab):
Here is the New York City region (55.4 million people reside in this screen grab):
And here is China (1.054 billion people reside in this screen grab):
I tried to capture both Shanghai and Hong Kong in this image. Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Shenzhen are currently in the mist of forming a 40 million-person megalopolis.
If we pan back over to the northeastern United States and Central Canada – keeping the same scale as the above image from China – it looks like this:
These last two images say a lot.
Here is the New York City region (55.4 million people reside in this screen grab):
And here is China (1.054 billion people reside in this screen grab):
I tried to capture both Shanghai and Hong Kong in this image. Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Shenzhen are currently in the mist of forming a 40 million-person megalopolis.
If we pan back over to the northeastern United States and Central Canada – keeping the same scale as the above image from China – it looks like this:
These last two images say a lot.
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