The growth and ability of current facial recognition technology has the European Union seriously considering banning the tech. The European Commission is proposing a three to five year ban on its use in public, except for research and approved security projects. Google and Microsoft, both of whom have invested heavily in the technology, have had different reactions to the proposed moratorium.

“I’m really reluctant to say let’s stop people from using technology in a way that will reunite families when it can help them do it,” Brad Smith, Chief Legal Officer of Microsoft told Electronics Weekly. “The second thing I would say is you don’t ban it if you actually believe there is a reasonable alternative that will enable us to, say, address this problem with a scalpel instead of a meat cleaver.”

Google, on the other hand, is supporting the EU proposal. Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet - Google’s parent corporation, recognized the possible nefarious uses this technology could be used for, and agreed a temporary ban would give governments the chance to develop regulations.

“I think it is important that governments and regulations tackle it sooner rather than later and gives a framework for it,” Pichai stated at a Brussels conference recently. “Sensible regulation must also take a proportionate approach, balancing potential harms with social opportunities. This is especially true in areas that are high risk and high value.”

Facial recognition is more a tracking device than a data collector, compared to the huge amounts of information about us big companies are already gathering. Our internet engagement, purchases, reading and viewing habits are all collected somewhere.

As the New York Times reported in an opinion piece yesterday, banning facial recognition data collection may be too late.

“These efforts are well intentioned, but facial recognition bans are the wrong way to fight against modern surveillance. Focusing on one particular identification method misconstrues the nature of the surveillance society we’re in the process of building. Ubiquitous mass surveillance is increasingly the norm. In countries like China, a surveillance infrastructure is being built by the government for social control. In countries like the United States, it’s being built by corporations in order to influence our buying behavior, and is incidentally used by the government”.

Data has become the valuable commodity. Data brokers are becoming the new barons of industry. 

“This is how large internet companies like Google and Facebook make their money. It’s not just that they know who we are, it’s that they correlate what they know about us to create profiles about who we are and what our interests are. This is why many companies buy license plate data from states. It’s also why companies like Google are buying health records, and part of the reason Google bought the company Fitbit, along with all of its data,” The New York Times notes.