Māori Concerns About Misuse Of Facial Recognition Technology Highlighted In Science

Māori concerns about the misuse of facial recognition technology are highlighted in a new paper published one of the world’s leading science journals. In her piece ‘Protecting pieces of us’ published in Science magazine, Professor Tahu Kukutai (Waikato, Ngāti Maniapoto, Te Aupōuri) takes a close-up look at the increasing use of biometric technologies like FRT and argues for a more careful approach.

In the commentary she writes, “the increased risk arising from changing geopolitics calls for more, rather than less, protection of highly sensitive data that, in the wrong hands, could have far-reaching consequences. With our most personal data at stake, it is critical that regulators take action to protect the pieces of us to the strongest extent possible.”

Kukutai, a Co-Director of Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Centre of Research Excellence, is a regular contributor to Science magazine’s ‘Expert Voices’ column. She writes that Māori have a range of concerns about the use of biometrics including cultural harms arising from data misuse, racial bias and profiling, lack of accuracy leading to misidentification, and surveillance overreach.

Her commentary is a timely one as the Office of the Privacy Commissioner looks to implement a Code of practice to regulate biometric data processing. Kukutai says our Privacy Act is unique internationally because it requires the Privacy Commissioner to take account of cultural perspectives on privacy. “The Act recognises that privacy protection has cultural aspects that need to be recognised and acted on. It’s not a one size fits all. I think this offers immense opportunity to think more broadly about what kind of digital society we want our mokopuna to live in.”

Kukutai will be taking part in the first ever Indigenous privacy panel at the annual Global Privacy Summit which will take place in Washington DC next week.

You can read the commentary in full here: https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.adw9973?af=R

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