YOUR FACE BELONGS TO US: A SECRETIVE STARTUP’S QUEST TO END PRIVACY AS WE KNOW IT

Written by Kashmir Hill, Reviewed by Marc D. Alexander^*

"Creepy" and "scary" are acrid words appearing in Kashmir Hill’s book Your Face Belongs to Us (2023), about facial recognition software. The nightmarish scenarios Hill presents reveal a dystopian present, made possible by existing technology. The prototypical example is the weirdo at a bar snapping a photo of a woman with his smart phone. He does not know her, but with facial recognition software, he will be able to identify her, explore the web with her name and image, find her address, age, education, place of employment, lawsuits, marriages, divorces, friends, relatives — and still more images, linked to more information. Now, she is no longer an anonymous stranger.

More gravely, countries with troublesome human rights records can now photograph protesters, and instantly identify them. Those at greatest risk of losing their anonymity will be persons at the margins of what is considered to be politically or socially acceptable.

During the Occupy Wall Street protests, some protesters wore Guy Fawkes masks, appropriating the comically sinister image of the rebel with the upturned mustache who unsuccessfully tried to blow up the British Parliament in 1605. In the television series Mr. Robot, the hacktivists seeking to destroy the records of Evil Corp also wore Guy Fawkes masks. While the mask is a symbol of rebellion, it has also become a way to recover anonymity. Today, masks and reflectacles may be used in an attempt to thwart facial recognition software.