Progress Report on Collaborative Engagement on Facial Recognition Issues

A coalition of 21 investors led by Candriam, including our partners Aequo, SHARE, and Vancity, recently released an update on the progress of the dialogue on issues related to facial recognition technologies.

Launched in March 2021, the coalition is calling for the sale of facial recognition services to law enforcement to be suspended until proper regulation emerges to ensure that the technology is used responsibly.

The engagement targets 15 companies and aims to understand how they assess, manage and mitigate the human rights risks of this technology. The progress report raised 4 major areas of concern:

• racial and gender bias: facial recognition technology can lead, even unintentionally, to discrimination and human rights violations;
• the limited reliability of the technology: the algorithm used should always be controlled by a human being
• the infringement of personal data protection: the sale of this technology to law enforcement agencies requires adequate regulation;
• misuse: as technology evolves faster than regulation, it is imperative that companies frame these practices with the necessary ethics and communicate transparently.

The report highlights the efforts of 3 companies:

• Microsoft, which has implemented a governance system around the ethics of artificial intelligence; no longer does facial classification and has put a moratorium on sales of facial recognition technology to law enforcement;
• Motorola, for whom the system including facial recognition technology must help the human rather than decide for him;
• Thales, which has implemented facial recognition technology-assisted passport control by ensuring that user data is deleted after each pass.

A second report is expected in 2023 once all 15 companies have been met.

Sources : Investor Engagement on Human Rights Risks of Facial Recognition Technology: Interim Report, Candriam, septembre 2022, https://bit.ly/3UKYLEQ; « Candriam: premiers résultats de l'initiative d'engagement collaboratif sur la reconnaissance faciale », allnews.ch, 13 octobre 2022, https://bit.ly/3EmzkUJ