The Government Is Doing Scary Things With Your License

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PushBlack
July 19, 2019

When you get your driver’s license photo taken, there’s more to be worried about than fixing your hair or how the photo’s going to turn out. Something devious has been going on and it’s been happening WITHOUT your consent. This news has blown everyone away. 

The FBI and Immigration And Customs Enforcement (ICE) have taken millions of photos from state driver’s license databases in secret for facial recognition. The Washington Post exposed this, reporting “[n]either Congress nor state legislatures have authorized the development of such a system.”

You may think, “What’s the big deal?” Well, aside from the fact the Trump Administration is defending something being done without our permission, facial recognition can be dangerous. Research has shown when it comes to this technology, it doesn’t work well in correctly identifying Black people.  

This has been happening for YEARS without anyone’s knowledge and it’s worrisome considering the widespread racism in the criminal justice system. But the post says “the technology already is tightly woven into the fabric of modern law enforcement.”

A Georgetown University thinktank released a report called “The Perpetual Lineup” in 2016 that showed how Black people are also more likely to be targeted by facial recognition. When you pair that with how it wrongly identifies us, there’s reason enough for us to reject this!

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