Ethics of Facial Recognition Technology: A Business Report

This report delves into the ethical, sustainable, and social impacts of facial recognition technology. It provides an overview of the technology, its applications, and the ethical concerns associated with its use, particularly in the UK. The report explores the application of various ethical theories, including utilitarianism, deontology, and Rawls' theory of justice, to analyze the ethical dilemmas presented by facial recognition. It examines the positive and negative effects of the technology, considering its impact on security, privacy, and potential for misuse. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of ethical considerations in the development and deployment of facial recognition technology to ensure responsible and beneficial use.

Running head: ETHICS SUSTAINABILITY AND SOCIAL IMPACT
ETHICS SUSTAINABILITY AND SOCIAL IMPACT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................2
Overview of Facial Recognition Technology............................................................................2
The Ethics of Facial Recognition Technology...........................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction:
A face recognition technology is a technology that has the ability to recognise or
authenticate a person from an image or a frame of video from a source of video. There are
more than one technique in which the face recognition technology works but they work by
differentiating chosen facial functionalities from the given image with faces that are present
in a database. Face recognition is a technology that is used in various areas.
This report focuses on the ethical issues that arise from the utilisation of facial
recognition in UK. The report provides an overview of facial recognition and the use of facial
recognition in various areas. The report discusses about the ethics those are linked with the
technology of facial recognition and the various theories of ethics that can be related to the
ethical issues of technology of facial recognition.
Overview of Facial Recognition Technology
Facial recognition technology is an application of biometric software that has the
capability of distinctively recognizing or validating a person by differentiating and evaluating
models that is based on the contours of a face of a person (Andrejevic and Selwyn 2019).
Everyone has a distinct face structure, this software is able to evaluate the features,
match it with the information that is present in a database, and then recognition the person
based n the facial structure.
The market of facial recognition was at .97 billion USD in the year 2018 and it is
predicted to grow to 10.15 billion USD by the year 2025. Some people are pushing in order
to use the technology more but other raise questions because of the security and the accuracy
of the technology (Zuo, Saun and Forrest 2019). The systems of the technology can vary

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sometimes when it comes to the recognition of face, the general functioning of the facial
recognition technology are as follows (Hamann and Smith 2019):
 Detection of face
 Evaluation of the face
 Conversion of image to data
 Finding a match
Use of facial recognition technology
The technology of facial recognition may seem to be futuristic, presently it is utilised in
various ways. The applications of the facial recognition technology are as follows:
 Security of device: various applications utilise facial recognition for the purpose of
protection of data. A secured password cannot protect the information and the counts
from the hackers and this why people have started using facial recognition (Singer 2018).
These applications need the face of the owner in order to unlock the smartphone or access
the sensitive data and information.
 Recognition of genetic disorders: various healthcare applications utilise facial recognition
in order to detect a genetic disorder (Zhang and Kang 2019). They examine the faces and
then compare them to a database that consists of various faces of those that includes these
disorders.
 Shoplifting: various stores have the systems of face recognition that mark several
individuals as a threat if they have shoplifted. This system can recognise the shoplifter
and then identify the owner of the shop of the past discrepancies. This can be
advantageous for the owners of the store; the accuracy of the facial recognition system is
sometimes questioned (Andrejevic and Selwyn 2019). If a person who is innocent is
mislabelled as a shoplifter then it can affect their whole life.

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 Purchasing alcohol: Some of the grocery stores in UK use facial recognition in order to
recognise people if they are old enough to enter the bar or buy alcohol. The stores of
grocery permit the customers to utilise the self-checkout for purchasing alcohol without
requiring another employee in order to check the identity cards. Those recognised as
younger than 25 years old require having their identity cards checked.
 Security in schools: the facial recognition is starting to be implemented in the schools.
Schools in Sweden utilises facial recognition to call attendance in the classes. The face
recognition technology can identify 10 kinds of guns in order to prevent acts of violence
in the schools.
 Airline use: various airlines as Delta and JetBlue are utilising facial recognition in order
to recognise the passengers (Zeng et al 2019). The biometric scanning of facial is optional
will permit the passengers flying to utilise faces as the air ticked thus, saving time and
prevention of hassle of keeping track of the ticket.
The software of facial recognition has become popular in the past few years. It is utilised
everywhere from, shopping malls, airports and many more places. There are few advantages
of using technology of facial recognition in order to solve and prevent crimes but there are
various concerns about the safety and privacy of the technology.
The controversies about the facial recognition technology are that it has proven in more
than one study that it is not accurate at recognising people of people especially black women.
Another controversy is the utilisation of the facial recognition for the purposes of law of
enforcement (Proença et al 2019). According to a report from the year May 2018, the FBI has
the access to 412 million images of faces for searches. The Chinese government is already
utilising facial recognition in order to arrest the jaywalkers and other crimes those are petty
and that causes debate amongst the civil rights and the issues of privacy versus the protection
of the public. The Utah department of safety of public has put bans on the utilisation of facial

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recognition for the criminal cases. The enforcement of law in Utah claim that the utilisation
of software of facial recognition assists to keep away the criminals. The utilisation of this
technology causes some concerns about the way the people are watched and if the attackers
can access this sensitive data that will cause more harm than any good (Stark 2018). A group
of activist known as the Fight for the Future said that the technology of facial recognition is
an persistent technology that can be utilised for surveillance.
The Ethics of Facial Recognition Technology
Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that is normative that keeps the locus of wrong and
right exclusively on outputs of selecting one of the policies over the other policies (Mill
2016). It moves away further than the scope of interest of an individual and then take into
explanation others interest. The three principles of Utilitarianism are as follows:
 Utilitarianism is derived from the word utility that means happiness or pleasure. To say
something has a value that is inherent that explains that it is good in itself. A world in
which this type of thing lives is always better than a world without this thing.
 Actions are right as they encourage happiness and wrong as they promote unhappiness:
This principle of Utilitarianism is contentious (de Lazari-Radek and Singer 2017). It
makes it an appearance of consequentialism as it says that ethics of an action is decided
by the cost. The more the happiness by the action among the pretentious, better is the
action.
 Happiness of everyone counts equally: This may hit the people as a quite clear standard
that is moral.
The ethics of deontology is the theory of ethics that is normative that the morality of an
activity that should be based on if that activity itself is wrong or right under a sequence of
regulation and rules, rather than based on the cost of the action or the activity. The ethics of

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deontology holds atleast some of the acts are morally obligatory regardless of the cost for the
welfare of humans. The description of these ethics is some of the expressions such as virtue
has its own reward, duty for the sake of duty and the let the justice be done through the fall of
heaven.
The theory of Rawls’ offers a framework that explains the importance, in a society that is
assumed to include equal and free persons, of personal and political liberties, of cooperative
arrangements and equal opportunities that prides benefits to the less or the more benefitted
members of the society. Rawls alters and creates the principles of justice in his book. The two
principles of justice include:
 Every person is to have an equivalent right to the widespread system of the equal liberties
those are basic and they are compatible with a same system of liberty for all the people.
 The inequalities those are economic and social are to be orderly so that they are together:
a) To the maximum benefit of slightest benefitted and they are consistent with the principle
of savings.
b) They are emotionally involved to the offices and the positions those are open to all under
the condition of equality of opportunity that is fair.
The theory of Utilitarianism can be applied to the practices of face recognition
technology. The theory of Utilitarianism says that the locus of wrong or right depends on the
results of the action. The practices of face recognition should consider these ethical
considerations and then perform its practices. The practice of face recognition technology
includes both bad and good practices.
The theory of deontology should be applied to the technology of facial recognition. The
theory of deontology says that the ethics of an activity is based on wrong or right of the
action and not on the consequences of the action (Rosas et al 2019). The facial recognition

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technology offers a lot of benefits as well as drawbacks and according to the theory of
deontology, the facial recognition technology should be judged ethical or non-ethical on the
right or wrong practices and not the consequences after it had been used for the wrong
practices (Rawal 2019).
According to the Rawls’ theory of justice he said that these are the values those are based
on reason and free persons and are anxious to their own interest and they would recognize in
a position that is initial of their equal opportunity by defining the fundamental terms of their
relation. This theory of justice can be applied to the practices of technology of facial
recognition and it can be said that everything of the practices of the technology of facial
recognition can be justified until something is done wrong is done using the technology of
facial recognition and the theories of ethics those are applied to the technology are the three
theories of justice (Buchanan 2017). Facial recognition technology has some ethical issues
and while using this technology, ethics must be kept in mind so that no wrong decisions or
wrong actions are taken when using the facial recognition technology. The ethical issues
must be taken into considerations when using the technology of facial recognition.
The Utilitarian’s view the facial recognition technology as ethical as long the action of the
technology is right (Scanlon 2020). The deontologist also view the facial recognition
technology as ethical and the people that follow the theory of justice also see the facial
recognition technology as ethical.
Positive and negative effect of Facial Recognition
The positive effect of the facial recognition technology is that it can be used for safety
and security. The agencies of law enforcement utilise the technology in order to uncover the
criminals and the children those are missing. The airports use the facial recognition
technology in order to secure the security checkpoints. By applying, the theory of

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Utilitarianism in facial recognition it can be said that the ethics in the facial recognition
technology is correct as long the output is correct according to the theory of Utilitarianism.
On applying the theory of Deontology, it can be said that the ethics of the facial recognition
technology is correct as long as it is used for right causes that is for the security and the safety
purposes. The Law of Justice states that the facial recognition technology is ethically correct
as long as the something is done wrong with the help of the facial recognition technology.
The negative effects of the facial recognition technology are that it is a threat to the
privacy of an individual. The technology is not effective at recognising the colour of the
people and the women. Another negative effect of the technology is the storage of the data
those are sensitive and the challenges those come with it. By applying the theory of
utilitarianism, it can be said that the negative effects of facial recognition are ethically wrong,
as the consequences of the uses are harmful. By applying the theory of Deontology, it can be
said that the negative effect of the technology is ethically wrong as the technology is used for
wrong purposes and the theory of Deontology is not based on the consequences of the
technology. According to the Rawls theory of Justice it can be said that practices of the
technology of facial recognition is justified until something wrong is done with it and wrong
things are done with the facial recognition technology.
To benefit from the positive effects of the technology of facial recognition, the society
have to work through some of the challenges those are significant too the civil and the
privacy liberties.
Conclusion
The report concludes with the various ethical considerations that must be engaged into
considerations when using the technology of facial recognition. The technology of facial
recognition is nowadays most used technology in order to keep the data and information safe

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from the hands of hackers. The report provides a summary of the face recognition technology
and how the technology works while detecting the faces that are present in the databases. The
report also discusses about the usefulness of the technology of facial recognition that for the
purposes of security and the other purposes. The report discusses about the various ethical
theories such as Utilitarianism, deontology and the theory of justice and the principles of
these ethical theories. The report provides an overview of these theories and the application
of these theories on the technology of facial recognition. The practices of technology of facial
recognition are mentioned on the report and whether they are good or bad can be judged by
applying these theories of ethics on the technology of facial recognition.

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References
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de Lazari-Radek, K. and Singer, P., 2017. Utilitarianism: A very short introduction. Oxford
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Hamann, K. and Smith, R., 2019. Facial Recognition Technology. Criminal Justice, 34(1),
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Mill, J.S., 2016. Utilitarianism. In Seven masterpieces of philosophy (pp. 337-383).
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