So does this mean that, say, Apple actually doesn't have access to our FaceID data? Otherwise there'd be no need for no laws: just force Apple, Google, etc to share face information with "the government". Well, I guess technically "they" would probably need some kind of law to do this anyway. I feel like tons of people use various kinds of FaceID-type technologies for unlocking their phones, laptops, etc. So it would make sense if "they" already had all of our faces.

I personally don't use FaceID because I'm not thrilled about having my face scanned with utmost precision. BTW, I'm looking at my phone typing this and I know my phone has its face-scanning device pointed right at me. Is it sending "them" my face data all the time? Or sometimes? I can't tell. What if I'm showing something on my phone to another person? Is it going to scan their face too? Maybe, maybe not.

I wouldn’t mind as much if it was entirely in house gov run. They realistically know a lot about me already - incl blood donations so could get dna even.

Outsourcing this to random ass for profits is a problem though.

I completely agree with this, but my banking apps, my broker, my health insurance, my simcard provider all already require my face for identification.

I.....

love the idea, but if you aren't from a Shengen country you can't get into Shengen countries without a fingerprint scan and a face photo at the airport:

https://travel-europe.europa.eu/ees/data-held-by-ees

No way to opt out of the scan.

To take the other side as nearly all comments agree, I'm not too worried about my face. My socials - twitter, fb, linkedin all have my face and 2/3 real name. When I do things in the real world I also have a face. Also if I want to be anonymous on social networks you can still pretty much. You can worry too much about that stuff. Not that the author worries, being an LLM.

They've got mine... Fly to Canada and your face gets scanned. I forgot this event and was surprised, walking through an American airport flying to another domestic location, that my picture and name appeared on an airline's screen without input. Not a government screen, mind you. I forget the exact context but the feeling persists. Very unnerving.

The battle is lost, technological determinism is an unstoppable force.

Once the camera was invented the die was cast.

"Technological determinism is the theory that a society's technology drives the development of its social structure, cultural values, and history."

How is this different from sending my government ID to access things like Stripe, Robin Hood, etc?

It seems that without legal obligation things will continue to go this route.

The problem is that for most people, facial recognition is just another method of account verification. Sometimes worse than alternatives, but also sometimes more convenient, and convenience wins over privacy if people are not actively made aware of the consequences.

That's kind of a bleak vision.

I wonder how the author would explain that the ID and age systems we already have – cigarette dispensers, liquor stores, club entry, driver's license, to name a few – work "kind of fine" though.