Study finds factors behind a society’s acceptance of biometric surveillance

Wondering if your neighbors will support government use of facial recognition surveillance? A new study of four of the world’s largest economies reportedly identifies factors influencing public acceptance of algorithmic domestic spying.

Swiss and German university researchers say an especially powerful factor is to what degree is their privacy is considered sacred. Other concerns shape attitudes, they say, including terrorist threats and the culture’s affinity for technology.

Fear of terrorist attack, for example, is a bigger factor in the United States than some other nations.

But across the four nations surveyed, privacy was the common element behind approval or rejection of government biometric surveillance.

The four countries studied through an online survey were China, the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany. The report includes full interviews with some survey respondents in China and Germany.

It was funded by the European Research Council, a public organization supporting research in the European Union, and the Swiss National Science Foundation.

The researchers, from Freie Universität Berlin and the University of St. Gallen, in Switzerland, expressed surprise at seeing respondents in China put such an emphasis on personal privacy.

Chinese autocratic leaders have for several generations told their citizens that they share everything, almost as a genetic imperative, with the Communist Party.

Study subjects expressed helplessness or resignation, according to the report. They expect their biometric and other personal data to be harvested and used by businesses (Alibaba and its co-founder, Jack Ma, get name-dropped) and the government.

One respondent quoted by researchers reportedly said, “The information has already been leaked before the arrival of (facial recognition technology), and it’s still happening.”

German responses came at privacy from a number of tangents, most importantly, historical.

Everyone grew up in the shadow of Adolf Hitler’s paranoid governance and those in the former East Germany after the war got a second douse of surveillance dictatorship.

Despite that, those speaking to researchers over all felt giving their central government sole authority (and shutting out local governments and the private sector) over facial recognition. Sometimes resignation can be heard in some responses.

One German resident, according to the report, does not fear biometric surveillance.

“The German government knows everything about me anyway,” the respondent said. “I’m completely transparent.”

That the research team did not delve more deeply into U.S. attitudes might be a reflection of the disparate and competing feelings about government (or industry) use of facial recognition software.

Article Topics

biometric identification  |  China  |  facial recognition  |  Germany  |  privacy  |  surveillance  |  U.S.A  |  UK