You could be in a facial recognition database and wouldn’t know it

Did you hear this on the news last night? Nearly half of American adults are in facial recognition databases.

And in most cases, those Americans provide the picture.

“Photos are culled from social media images, driver’s licenses, and photo IDs,” one reporter explains.

There are more than 411 million photos, which can be scanned using facial recognition technology. That’s what has this man worried.

Related: This man feels like an ‘insect’ living in America

“If the right to privacy means anything, it’s the right to say leave me alone,” Professor Alvaro Bedoya said.

Bedoya runs the Center on Privacy and Technology at Georgetown. He’s been warning about this for years.

“Maryland enrolled 4 million drivers in its system,” he said. “Ask a Marylander. Do they know they’re in a lineup that’s scanned thousands of times a year without warrants? I’m sure they’ll be surprised about that.”

He understands the potential for quickly catching criminals, and terrorists, and looters who try to hide among demonstrators — but it’s also completely unregulated. You don’t even need a warrant.

And because certain groups such as like African Americans are more likely to have their faces in police databases, they could find themselves stopped even more often than they already are.

Bedoya is encouraging states to take control.

“Two states, Illinois and Texas, the reddest of the red and bluest of the blue, have drawn a line and said, companies if you want to track people by their faces, get their permission first.”

But you have to admit – the idea of computers instantly fingering bad guys is pretty tempting. Remember how quickly they caught crooks on Person of Interest?

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