Abstract
This paper is an attempt to present disclosive ethics as a framework for computer and information ethics – in line with the suggestions by Brey, but also in quite a different manner. The potential of such an approach is demonstrated through a disclosive analysis of facial recognition systems. The paper argues that the politics of information technology is a particularly powerful politics since information technology is an opaque technology – i.e. relatively closed to scrutiny. It presents the design of technology as a process of closure in which design and use decisions become black-boxed and progressively enclosed in increasingly complex socio-technical networks. It further argues for a disclosive ethics that aims to disclose the nondisclosure of politics by claiming a place for ethics in every actual operation of power – as manifested in actual design and use decisions and practices. It also proposes that disclosive ethics would aim to trace and disclose the intentional and emerging enclosure of politics from the very minute technical detail through to social practices and complex social-technical networks. The paper then proceeds to do a disclosive analysis of facial recognition systems. This analysis discloses that seemingly trivial biases in recognition rates of FRSs can emerge as very significant political acts when these systems become used in practice.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
M Akrich (1992) The De-scription of Technical Objects W.E Bijker J Law (Eds) Shaping Technology/Building Society MIT Press Cambridege 205–224
P.E. Agre. Your Face is Not a Bar Code: Arguments Against Face Recognition in Public Places, [Online], 2003. Available: http://dlis.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre, [2003, May 25].
P Agre C Mailloux (1997) Social Choice about Privacy: Intelligent Vehicle-Highway Systems in the United States B Friedman (Eds) Human Values and Design of Computer Technology Cambridge University Press Cambridge
Brooks, Michael. “Face-off”, New Scientist, Vol. 175, Issue 2399, 9/7/2002.
Philip Brey (2000) ArticleTitleDisclosive Computer Ethics Computers and Society 30 IssueID4 10–16
Michel Callon (1986) Some Elements of a Sociology of Translation: Domestication of the Scallops and the Fishermen of St Brieuc Bay John Law (Eds) Power, Action and Belief Routledge & Kegan Paul London 196–233
John D Caputo (1993) Against Ethics Indiana University Press Indianapolis
Simon Critchley (1999) The Ethics of Deconstruction: Derrida and Levinas EditionNumber2 Edinburgh University Press Edinburgh
Andrew Feenberg (1999) Questioning Technology Routledge London and New York
N Furl J.P Phillips A.J O’Toole (2002) ArticleTitleFace Recognition Algorithms and the Other-race Effect: Computational Mechanisms for a Developmental Contact Hypothesis Cognitive Science 26 797–815 Occurrence Handle10.1016/S0364-0213(02)00084-8
Facial Recognition Vendor Test 2002 (FRTV2002), [Online], Available: http://www.frvt.org/FRVT2000/default.htm, [2003, Aug.1].
M Foucault (1975) Discipline and Punish, The Birth of the Prison Penguin Books Ltd. London, UK
S Garpinkle (2002) ArticleTitleDon’t Count on Face-recognition Technology to Catch Terrorists Discover 23 IssueID9 17–20
G. Givens, J.R. Beveridge, B.A. Draper, and D. Bolme. A statistical Assessment of Subject Factors in the PCA Recognition of Human Faces, [Online], 2003. Available: http://www.cs.colostate.edu/evalfacerec/papers/csusacv03. pdf,[2003, July.10].
S Graham D Wood (2003) ArticleTitleDigitizing Surveillance: Categorization, Space and Inequality Critical Social Policy 20 IssueID2 227–248
R. Gross, J. Shi, and J.F. Cohn. Quo vadis Face Recognition?, [Online], 2001a. Available: http://dagwood.vs am.ri.cmu.edu/ralph/Publications/QuoVadisFR.pdf, [2003, July 10].
L.D. Introna. Oppression, Resistance and Information Technology: Some Thoughts on Design and Values, Design for Values: Ethical, Social and Political Dimensions of Information Technology workshop sponsored by the NSF DIMACS held at Princeton University, USA, February 27-March 1, 1998.
L.D Introna H Nissenbaum (2000) ArticleTitleThe Internet as a Democratic Medium: Why the Politics of Search Engines Matters Information Society 16 IssueID3 169–185
F Kafka (1925) The trial Penguin Books Ltd. London, England
R Kemp N Towell G Pike (1997) ArticleTitleWhen Seeing Should not be Believing: Photographs, Credit Cards and Fraud Applied Cognitive Psychology 11 211–222 Occurrence Handle10.1002/(SICI)1099-0720(199706)11:3<211::AID-ACP430>3.0.CO;2-O
D. Kopel and M. Krause. Face the FactsFacial recognition technology’s troubled past – and troubling future. [Online] 2003. Available: http://www.reason.com/0210/fe.dk.face.shtml, [2003, Nov. 18].
B Latour (1991) Technology is Society Made Durable J Law (Eds) A Sociology of Monsters: Essays on Power, Technology and Domination Routledge London 103–131
B Latour (1992) Where are the Missing Masses? The Sociology of a Few Mundane Artefacts W.L.J Bijker (Eds) Shaping Technology/Building Society MIT Press London 225–258
John Law (1991) The Sociology of Monsters: Essays on Power, Technology and Domination Routledge London
D Lyon (2001) Surveillance Society, Monitoring Everyday Life Open University Press Philadelphia, USA
D. Lyon. Surveillance After September 11, 2001, [Online], 2002. Available: http://www.fine.lett.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/lyon/lyon2.html, [2003, July.10].
G.T Marx (1995) The Engineering of Social Control: The search for the silver Bullet J Hagen R Peterson (Eds) Grime and Inequality Stanford University Press Stanford, CA 225–46
J. Meek. Robo cop: Some of Britain’s 2.5 million CCTV cameras are being hooked up to a facial recognition system designed to identify known criminals. But does it work, Guardian, June 13, 2002.
C Norris G Armstrong (1999) The Maximum Surveillance Society, The Rise of CCTV Berg New York, USA
R. O’Harrow Jr. Facial Recognition System Considered For US Airports, Washington Post, Monday, September 24, 2001, Page A14.
P. Phillips, P. Grother, R. Micheals, D.M. Blackburn, E. Tabassi, and J.M. Bone. Face Recognition Vendor Test 2002: Overview and Summary, [Online], 2003. Available: http://www.biometricsinstitute.org/bi/ FaceRecognitionVendorTest2002.pdf, [2003, May 30].
J. Stanley and B. Steinhardt. Drawing a Blank: The Failure of Facial Recognition Technology in Tampa, Florida, ACLU Special Report, 2002.
Landon Winner (1980) ArticleTitleDo Artefacts Have Politics Daedalus 109 121–136
J. Woodward, C. Horn, J. Gatune and A. Thomas. Biometrics: A Look at Facal Recognition, Documented Briefing prepared for the Virginia State Crime Commission, 2003 (available at http://www.rand.org).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Paper prepared for the Technology and Ethics Workshop at Twente
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Introna, L.D. Disclosive Ethics and Information Technology: Disclosing Facial Recognition Systems. Ethics Inf Technol 7, 75–86 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-005-4583-2
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-005-4583-2