Posted 12:24 PM by Robert

The Clueless ACLU

Another example of the ACLU's clueless myopia appears in its objection to the use of "face recognition technology" at the Statue of Liberty. The ACLU says it objects because the technology (i) is easily frustrated by people wearing a hat, sunglasses or changes in lighting, and (ii) the technology has a high level of "false positives" - that is, it often misidentifies people as among those the government is looking for.

Now, the alternative to using "face recognition technology" is showing human guards pictures of the people the government is looking for. In that case, common sense, ordinary experience and extensive studies on the usefulness of "eyewitnesses" in court cases all tell us that the humans (i) are easily frustrated by people wearing a hat, sunglasses or changes in lighting, and (ii) have a high level of "false positives" - that is, often misidentify people as among those the government is looking for.

And, in addition, the guards can't reasonably be expected to remember more than a few faces at a time.

So what the heck is the ACLU talking about?