My Face Matters: The Case for a Multinational Code of Ethics on Facial Recognition Technology in the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, China and Russia

Abstract

Facial recognition technology is a rapidly growing field of technology that has sparked massive scholarly debates on ethics and regulation. Facial recognition technology is defined as a type of biometric technology which maps an individual’s facial features mathematically and stores it as a face print. The system utilizes deep learning techniques in order to compare a live or digital image to the stored face print in order to verify an individual’s identity. Considering the privacy and discrimination concerns brought up by facial recognition technology, this thesis focuses on the current lack of regulation for facial recognition technology across five countries: the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, China, and Russia. It looks at Costanza-Chock’s theory of design justice as a means of advocating the creation of a multinational code of ethics that would inform regulatory practices for facial recognition technology in these five countries. This thesis purports that the principles of design justice can be used as a lens to create a multinational code of ethics for the regulation of facial recognition technology. This research adds on to prior scholarly conversation on theories of value sensitive design and collective action to critically analyze the principles of design justice to prove that it can successfully govern collaborative relationships between the five countries in order to inform legislation on facial recognition technology for them. To do so, this thesis provides context for facial recognition technology, analyzes the injustices associated with facial recognition technology to address why stronger legislation is needed, reviews the current regulations of facial technology in the five countries to convey their weaknesses, evaluates the regulation of the GDPR from the EU to critique the only multinational legislation of facial recognition technology to data, assess the contributions to value sensitive design theories by several authors, and evaluates Ostrom and Olson’s theories of collective action to address the case for collaboration between these countries. In this thesis, I conclude that the design justice principles can successfully be utilized to create multinational legislation and should therefore be mandated as a process by which the five countries collectively regulate facial recognition technology. To ensure the successful use of design justice principles for creating or revising legislation for the technological use of facial recognition, I suggests that the relevant actors in each of the five countries including legislators, tech experts, and human rights activists meet biannually to collaborate on regulating the technology and to address any issues the countries may come across while utilizing the design justice principles as new problems in facial recognition technology arise. Additionally, I suggest that the five countries mandate the annual report of a facial recognition technology impact statement by all entities within the countries that create, use, and store the data of the technology to ensure that potential cases of unethical use of the technology isn’t happening and if it does occur, ensures that these countries can collaborate to mitigate the harms from the technology through careful regulation under the scrutiny of design justice principles.