People everywhere are tracked – some more than others

+ learning the art of the apology US Edition - Today's top story: Face recognition technology follows a long analog history of surveillance and control based on identifying physical features [View in browser]( US Edition | 19 January 2024 [The Conversation] [The Conversation]( Top headlines - [Happy 40th Birthday, Macintosh!]( - [Trump defends himself to the Supreme Court]( - [Test your news smarts with our quiz]( Lead story People-tracking has a long history. As Drexel University medical ethicist and historian Sharrona Pearl writes, “A long line of technologies – from the fingerprint to the passport photo to iris scans – (have been) designed to monitor people and determine who has the right to move freely within and across borders and boundaries.” Face recognition technology is a modern and sophisticated example of these biometric methods that use individuals’ unique physical characteristics to identify them. Pearl explains how it’s used not just as a way to unlock your phone but [as a tool of surveillance](. Most chilling for me was the realization that unlike its analog predecessors, face recognition technology doesn’t rely on the participation – willing or otherwise – of the person being tracked. [ [How faith and religion drive the world. Sign up for our weekly newsletter, This Week in Religion.]( ] Maggie Villiger Senior Science + Technology Editor Today’s technology advances what passport control has been doing for more than a century. ullstein bild via Getty Images [Face recognition technology follows a long analog history of surveillance and control based on identifying physical features]( Sharrona Pearl, Drexel University Face recognition technology follows earlier biometric surveillance techniques, including fingerprints, passport photos and iris scans. It’s the first that can be done without the subject’s knowledge. 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