Facial Recognition, Technology, and Privacy Issues: A ‘Hot Topic’ at the 2019 NJLA Adult Services Forum
By Lisa Bruckman
The NJLA Adult Services Forum (October 22, 2019) opened with the “Morning Hot Topic: Facial Recognition, Technology, and Privacy Issues,” led with a discussion moderated by T.J. Lamanna (Emerging Technologies Librarian at Cherry Hill [NJ] Public Library), who advocates for the protection concerns of library users and librarians in the use of advancing technologies.
This portion of the session was followed by a presentation on the implementation of the Panasonic FacePro facial recognition system in the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) University Libraries by Ann D. Hoang (University Librarian, Robert W. Van Houten Library, NJIT, Newark) and Robert N. Gjini (Assistant Vice President for Facility Systems, NJIT).
FacePro is a facial recognition surveillance system with high resolution/high frame rate IP cameras. Entries and exits are then distributed over an IP (Internet protocol) network
What distinguishes facial recognition cameras from face detection cameras is the networking of the IP camera with “a digitized and networked version of closed-circuit television (CCTV). Instead, the IP camera can associate the face with a specific person. Face detection cameras can only identify that a face is in view but not identify the face as a specific person. With the donation of this beta product by Panasonic to NJIT in 2015, the number of thefts reported in NJIT University Libraries went from 15 in the prior year (2014-2015) to about five in each of the following few years. The IP cameras compare the captured images to those in a database of images, ultimately resolving some of the security issues NJIT University Libraries has experienced as an urban library system in Newark, NJ.
Isha Ghosh (Ph.D candidate, Library and Information Science at Rutgers University), then presented her portion of the session, Privacy and Technology. She spoke on her recent research aimed at better understanding privacy attitudes and behavior challenges among technology users, particularly the trade-off between maintaining privacy and building networks.
Current users of smart devices transmit large volumes of data over the networks interconnecting one smart device to others, a practice that imperils the privacy of that information greatly since most unencrypted, non-ethernet networks are easily vulnerable to hacking. Ghosh’s research aims to bridge the “gap between attitudes and behaviors” by developing privacy interventions that encourage greater user awareness of those privacy gaps.
For example, social networks can offer selection-based interventions to remediate privacy issues using known behaviors of smart device users. In one example of the social media interventions she was examining, users were presented with a set number of members from their contact list daily to approve or deny continued contact in a function built into the media software. By reviewing those still on your contact list, smart device users become aware of undesirable past acquaintances that still remain on their contact lists.
A question and answer session followed, with library staff and professionals discussing the issues with the panelists. Many of the questions concerned the technical, legal, and policy issues related to the use of facial recognition systems.
Lisa Bruckman is a Reference Librarian in New Jersey who teaches library instruction classes at Union County College. She also has worked as a Reference Librarian at North Brunswick Public Library and as a substitute Librarian at Westfield Memorial Library in Westfield, NJ. She previously worked as a School Media Specialist.