International. The Security Industry Association (SIA) has published its new policy principles guiding the development and deployment of facial recognition technology. SIA believes that all technology products, including facial recognition, should only be used for legal, ethical and non-discriminatory purposes.
"SIA recognizes that some community leaders have expressed deep-seated views calling for an end to the use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement and the private sector. We respectfully but firmly disagree. Facial recognition technology offers tremendous benefits to society when used effectively and responsibly and with the right safeguards," said Don Erickson, CEO of SIA. "We invite all stakeholders to review these well-thought-out principles and engage with us in meaningful discussions that lead to common-sense approaches to how this technology is used."
SIA is committed to applying the following principles in the development and deployment of facial recognition technology. SIA believes that these principles should be applied to the implementation of facial recognition tools in all security applications, in both public and private sector environments, and that they should be reflected in the development of any organizational or public policy that addresses these uses of the technology.
The basic principles of SIA include:
- Ensure transparency around the use of facial recognition
- Establish a clear and defined purpose for the use of facial recognition by organizations
- Use accurate and high-performance technology
- Incorporation of human supervision and review
- Data security protection
- Ensure privacy by design
- Train and educate technology users
- Improve or remove biased or discriminatory software
- Maintain the ethical acquisition of facial recognition technology.
These core policy principles were developed by and with input from many SIA members, including members of the SIA Facial Recognition Working Group, the SIA Data Privacy Advisory Board, and the SIA Executive Committee. In addition to these basic principles, the new document includes guidelines on the use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement and the public and private sectors.
SIA hopes to continue to lead the industry around the legal, ethical and non-discriminatory use of facial recognition technology.
The document can be downloaded by clicking here.
