Ethics, Sustainability, and Social Impact of FRT in the UK Report

This report explores the ethical, sustainable, and social impacts of Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) in the UK. It begins with an overview of FRT's applications, including crime prevention and forensic investigation, and discusses related controversies concerning privacy and potential biases. The main body delves into ethical considerations, examining utilitarianism, deontology, and Rawl's theory of justice in relation to FRT. The report analyzes how these ethical frameworks apply to the technology's use, highlighting both its advantages and disadvantages. It concludes that while FRT offers benefits in various sectors, its ethical implications, particularly concerning privacy and fairness, must be carefully addressed. The report recommends enhancing the accuracy of FRT cameras and ensuring that they do not discriminate against specific groups to maximize its potential benefits while mitigating its ethical risks.

Ethics, Sustainability and
Social Impact

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Overview of use of FRT in UK...................................................................................................3
Ethics of using FRT....................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Technology is being increasingly used in various sectors so that it can help in utilising of
data and information along with their storage in an efficient manner. This has also increased its
use by police so that criminals and missing persons can be accurately identified and the work of
police can become more easier and efficient. Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) is being used
by police so that they can identify criminals in crowded areas like metro stations, shopping
centres, streets, cultural events, festival celebrations etc. FRT utilises a software which help in
mapping the facial characteristics of people through images captured by the cameras, then these
biometric maps are matched with the facial maps of criminals so that potential suspects can be
identified (Baltimore, 2015). This technology can be used to help police and forces of country so
as to make their work easier and identifying criminals among a large number of people. In this
report the extent to which the use of FRT is ethical and sustainable will be discussed along with
identification of their social impact. Further various ethical theories that are related to use of FRT
will be discussed with application of principles of these theories on the use of FRT.
MAIN BODY
Overview of use of FRT in UK
Explanation of FRT including its current and potential uses
Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) is a technology which helps in identifying or
verifying a person by using the characteristics of a person's facial map and measuring the
distance between their eyes, nose and mouth and then comparing it with the biometric map of a
suspected criminal. This help in identifying criminals and missing people in crowded places like
shopping centres, railway stations, streets etc. making the work of police a lot easier and
accurate. There are many current and potential uses of FRT which can help in making the use of
this technology profitable to police, forces, companies etc. Following are the various uses of
FRT which can help a diverse range of people: Prevent retail crime: FRT can help in preventing retail crimes by identifying shoplifters,
organised retail criminals or people with a history of fraud so that crimes in retails can be
prevented (Bush, Bush and Orr, 2015).

 Unlock phones: This help in preventing personal data of people and also ensure that if a
phone is stolen the sensitive data remains inaccessible as the phone cannot be unlocked
without using the image of owner. Smarter advertising: Businesses can use FRT in advertising by making educated guesses
at people's age and gender so that hoardings can show advertisements as per the crowd
present (Byong-Hoon, 2018). Protect law enforcement: FRT helps police in identifying criminals and lost people in a
place which is crowded. This also help police in getting alert about the crowd and the
people who they are dealing with by taking all kinds of safety measures. Aid forensic investigation: This can help in making the work of forensic labs easier by
identifying dead and unconscious people through FRT. Diagnose diseases: By detecting changes in appearance with the use of FRT the people
who are diseased can be easily identified which can help in giving them early treatments.
Controversy related to the use of technology
Facial Recognition Technology (FWT) is being used by the police of UK so as to identify
criminals and missing people in crowded areas by placing cameras with FRT software so that the
facial characteristics of people can be identified and matched with prospect criminals. However,
there has been rising controversies on the use of FRT in public places which are listed below:
 It is a threat to individual's freedom as information about people is taken by capturing
their images or videos and handed over to the state without their consent and even
without their knowledge. Also people are unaware about what is done with the
information which is gathered which is against the privacy of individuals (Demiris,
Doorenbos and Towle, 2019).
 It is also seen that the technology works better for white men which means that women,
black and minority ethic community people are more targeted by this technology and
they repeatedly fall prey of identification test.
 The insecurity among people about getting questioned also rise which distorts the
behaviour of people and they avoid gathering at public places. This also breaks down the
trust of general public with police as their privacy gets threatened.

 It has also been seen in an incident that the FRT is not as efficient in identifying people as
it is considered to be. It flagged 29,000 possible suspects in a crowd of people out of
2,755 were falsely identified.
Thus from the above discussion it can be seen that though FRT provides many
advantages with its usage there are also some areas which can affect the privacy of people and
can start a protest against the use of this technology. It is important that technology is used in
such a manner that it does not go against the human rights and ethical use of technology can be
promoted (Gates, 2019).
Ethics of using FRT
Various ethical theories
Ethical theories can be used so that decision-making can be done in an ethical manner
and guidance can be taken based on these theories so that moral concepts can be justified and
moral problems can be efficiently solved. Following ethical theories can be used so that FRT can
be ethically used: Utilitarianism: This theory of ethics was given by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill
according to which an action is ethical if it promotes happiness and unethical if it
reverses happiness. Thus it means that if actions cause greatest amount of good for
people then the actions are ethical else unethical. This theory is based on the
consequences of actions which can be either good or bad which determines if actions are
ethical or not. This theory is very narrow in its concept as it only focus on the good and
bad effect but does not consider the overall impact which actions create on society and
environment. For example if a company is producing goods and services which help in
providing high satisfaction to customers but their actions are causing harm to
environment then even though happiness of people can be increased but the actions
cannot be called ethical (Holder-Brown and Parette, 2020). Deontology theory: Theory of deontology is normative in nature under which states that
actions must be based on a series of rules rather than based on the consequences of
actions. This theory thus defines certain rules under which actions must be done and if
they are not done as per the defined set of rules. This theory is simple to apply as people
only need to follow a particular set of rules so that their actions can be made ethical.
However following of rules makes the theory rigid and also restricts the actions of

people. Foe example when government breaks into hacker's systems so that they can be
dis functioned this action though is good for all the people but it is against the rule of
breaking into the software systems of other people. Rawl's theory of justice: Under this theory every individual is considered as free citizen
holding equal basic rights and cooperating within an egalitarian economic system. Thus
as per this theory everyone is at their discretion of making decisions by choosing
between what is right and what is wrong. This principle supports decision making to be
free and gives liberty to all on an equal basis (May, 2019).
Ethical theories to using FRT Utilitarianism view: As per the utilitarian theory any action which help in increasing the
happiness of people are ethical. With the use of FRT police can easily identify criminals,
find missing people, can be used in medical institutes, can help businesses in making
better advertisements etc. Thus as with the use of FRT many benefits can be obtained for
society it can be said that FRT is ethical in nature under this concept. With the use of this
technology many benefits can be gained which help in increasing public benefits. Thus as
per this theory which has a narrow scope the other factors of FRT are ignored and it is
considered as ethical which validates its usage in crowded places (Melden, 2018)
(Milligan, 2015). Deontologists view: As per this theory all the actions which are done under a set of
defined rules are called to be ethical. This theory makes the usage of FRT unethical as
this technology is being used against the privacy of individuals which increase concerns
in the society. FRT captures information about individuals and send them to state without
the consent of these individual and even without their knowledge. Also the individuals
are unaware about how their information is being used which is against the privacy rules
of UK as it affects the privacy of citizens of the country. Thus under this theory FRT
usage is unethical as however the rules of using technology are followed by the
government the rules of privacy are ignored which increases privacy concers.
 Rawl's Theory of justice view: Under this theory all the individuals are the free citizens
of a country which means that they are free to make decisions based on their discretion
about what is wrong and right. Under this theory all the people are considered as equal
and they are given the liberty to make their decisions equally. This theory makes FRT

unethical as FRT discriminates people based on their colour and gender as this
technology works better for white men which means that women, black community and
minority community are targeted more. This decreases their freedom and also affect their
decisions of behaving naturally in public place. Also this technology has many errors in
identification as there has been incidences where wrong people have been identified as
criminals which affect the dignity of people and also affect their trust with government
(Noble, 2017).
Thus from the above discussion it can be said that use of FRT is both ethical and
unethical as the technology is providing many advantages to people despite having many ethical
issues in its usage. FRT can be used for security and surveillance if it is used in an efficient
manner and does not harm the dignity and freedom of people. It is important that camera of FRT
technology must be enhanced and apart for just focusing on the facial characteristics other
characteristics must also be considered so that the accuracy of identification can be increased.
This will help in increasing the security measures of government and will also lower the chances
of wrong identification.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that FRT has many positive impacts in various
sectors where it can be used like businesses, hospitals, general public, security checks etc. so that
the surveillance can be increased along with the increase in convenience of using technology.
Though FRT can help in increasing the security of public places by identifying criminals and
missing people there have been many controversies in using this technology as it has increased
concerns of privacy in general public. The use of FRT can be made more ethical by making the
cameras of FRT more accurate so that they do not falsely identify people randomly which can
increase distrust among general public for police. Also it is important that these techniques do
not target a particular community of people and eliminate the other which can increaser
communal conflicts and unrest. Thus the usage of FRT can be made more ethical by increasing
the accuracy of FRT cameras which can help it in using it to its maximum potential.

REFERENCES
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