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Microsoft's chief legal officer said Friday in favor of regulating facial recognition technologies, because of the risk they pose to the right to privacy and individual freedoms.
In a blog post, Brad Smith calls on the US government to lay the legal groundwork for the use of facial recognition.
"Imagine a government tracking each of your moves in the past month, without your permission or without your knowledge," he writes. "Imagine a database of all the people who attended a political rally."
Companies could have the opportunity to closely monitor visitors or clients without their knowledge, and to use the information gathered for important decisions, For example, according to Brad Smith, the film universes such as "Minority Report" or "State Enemy", or the one portrayed in George Orwell's famous "1984" anticipation novel, are "On the verge of becoming possible"
"These questions increase the responsibility of the technology companies that create these products," he says. "They also call for thoughtful government regulation and the establishment of standards defining acceptable use of facial recognition."
"It may seem unusual for a company to request government regulation of its products, but there are many markets in which thoughtful regulation contributes to a healthier environment for both consumers and manufacturers, "says the head of Microsoft.
The Californian giant has been using face recognition for years for various tasks such as sorting digital photos. This technology can also unlock an iPhone, access a bank account, or help police find a missing child or terrorist.
At the end of June, it made it possible to identify more quickly the shooter of the newspaper Capital Gazette, which killed five people near Washington in the United States. But for many defenders of individual liberties, who point to its unreliability, facial recognition is rather synonymous with "Big Brother".
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