Even the Machines Are Racist. Facial Recognition Systems Threaten Black Lives.

Facial recognition technology promises to alert us if our children are skipping out on their college classes, to zip us past all the suckers waiting in line at the airport and to create nationwide databases to catch the “bad guys.” This newest biometric data is sold as a shortcut to utopia: technology that delivers responsible kids, quick service and safe streets — all with a scan of the human face. Politicians and companies pushing facial recognition technology say that, like the near-certainty of DNA and the exactness of fingerprint matches, the software is a precise, unbiased alternative to human . . .