Presented at
H2K2 (2002),
July 13, 2002, 5 p.m.
(60 minutes)
A talk about the technical problems of face scanning systems being used at airports to pick out terrorists. Will these systems work like the promoters are claiming they will? Or will they fail to catch terrorists and instead turn our airports into round-up zones for petty criminals?
Presenters:
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Richard M. Smith
Richard M. Smith once headed the nonprofit Privacy Foundation but now focuses on technology related to security issues. He's been described by The New York Times as "perhaps the nation's most vocal authority on data privacy." A former software entrepreneur, Smith is credited with uncovering dozens of incidents in which high technology companies were trying to breech consumers' privacy by secretly tracking online movements. He has teamed up with the ACLU to show that facial scanning technology would be largely ineffective in identifying terrorists. Smith operates a web site that reports "computer bites man" stories, named ComputerBytesMan.com.
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