On February 6, 2014, the National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA)--a division of the U.S. Department of Commerce--will hold the first in a series of meetings on facial recognition technology. "The goal of the process," says the NTIA, "is to develop a voluntary, enforceable code of conduct that specifies how the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights applies to facial recognition technology." Various stakeholders in this technology are invited to attend, and are reported to include Facebook, Walmart, and other industry giants.
Without a doubt, facial recognition will play a huge role in the development of AR. I plan to participate in this meeting on behalf of the AugmentedReality.Org trade association (which, among other things, sponsors the annual Augmented World Expo conference, where we're likely to hear more on the subject.)
In order to best represent the AR industry's views in this process, however, I need your help. Post a comment on this blog or social media post and let me know what concerns you have about facial recognition technology--or about attempts to regulate it. Does your business use, or plan to use, this technology? Does its impact on personal privacy concern you? What boundaries should there be on commercial exploitation of facial recognition data?
Whether you are a businessperson actively involved in AR or related technologies, a student, privacy advocate, or simply a concerned citizen, I want to hear from you, so that all of your voices can be represented in this process.
