Facial recognition is a type of biometric technology that extracts and analyzes specific features from an image or a video and compares the data to identifiers in other images of the same individual. In some facial recognition systems, the human body is irrelevant and only the face or parts thereof are considered, leading to systems that cannot be used to distinguish between people (but only between identical twins). In others, features of the human body are considered such as the overall form of the person, height, skin tone, hair, etc.
Face recognition technology is now operational in most countries. A range of systems is using this technology. People, who are interested in Face Recognition Technology in the past, have raised many questions on gender neutrality. Facial recognition technology and CCTV surveillance are great examples of the problems women face in a patriarchal society. Sometimes it violates the freedom of action because, on the face of it, it’s meant to “protect.” Sometimes it is used in misogynistic ways to track women and society views this act as “necessary.”
And this technology has nothing to do with sexism, or racism, or any other discriminatory practices. Because the fact is that it doesn’t see the person, but just a pattern of facial features which is painted over our faces by nature. It’s easier to recognize a pattern if it’s simple and not too redundant. The human face is not a simple pattern, which is why people have to be taught to make their appearance more uniform and uncluttered by makeup. Such applications form a huge database of images of human faces that can be used for research and development tasks. One of the main purposes of such databases is to create software and hardware tools for a field called computer vision. This technology is used for analyzing and processing different types of information, including biometric data, images, videos, and texts.
Ever since the introduction of facial recognition tech, it has rampantly been used for surveillance in all parts of the world. Originally, it was used to identify criminals and terrorists to maintain peace as well as safety for their overall people. But now this technology has turned into an instrument to control women due to their patriarchal society that fears women’s freedom. So the facial recognition technology should enable a biometric single sign-on, eliminating the need to log into multiple applications via social media platforms such as Facebook or Google+. I’ll explain how it can preserve patriarchal norms.