Google suspends face recognition program: contractor used "homeless people"

Google paralyzed the facial recognition research program after learning that companies hired by the tech company were paying with a type card gift card Homeless African-Americans to perform a facial scan.

Last week, the New York Daily News announced that one of the companies hired by Google in Atlanta (US) to study and improve facial recognition technology was analyzing the faces of homeless African-American people.

According to an anonymous source, this decision would have been taken without a Google representative. A second source told the aforementioned media that the workers' mission was to locate homeless people and university students in California because they would be more willing to receive an email. gift card 5 dollars in exchange for scanning his face.

This information led Google to paralyze the facial recognition system improvement program launched for the next smartphone of the company, Pixel 4, and with the intention of avoiding prejudice among blacks, as indicated
The New York Times (NYT).

Similarly, in Atlanta, local authorities asked Google for an explanation of these facts.

"The possibility that members of our most vulnerable population are being exploited to promote the business interests of your business is extremely alarming for many reasons," wrote Atlanta attorney Nina Hickson in a letter from NYT.

A spokesman for the company said in a statement that on Google "we take these statements seriously". He also explained that the technology company had hired other companies to digitize the faces of volunteers and that it was investigating the facts.