Saving Face: Investigating the Ethical Concerns of Facial Recognition Auditing

TL;DR

This paper explores ethical concerns in auditing facial recognition technology, emphasizing potential harms and design considerations to prevent exacerbating biases and ethical issues in biometric system evaluations.

Contribution

It identifies five ethical concerns specific to auditing facial recognition systems and offers practical guidance to mitigate associated risks.

Findings

Highlighting ethical tensions in biometric auditing

Providing tangible examples of ethical concerns

Reflecting on limitations of algorithmic audits

Abstract

Although essential to revealing biased performance, well intentioned attempts at algorithmic auditing can have effects that may harm the very populations these measures are meant to protect. This concern is even more salient while auditing biometric systems such as facial recognition, where the data is sensitive and the technology is often used in ethically questionable manners. We demonstrate a set of five ethical concerns in the particular case of auditing commercial facial processing technology, highlighting additional design considerations and ethical tensions the auditor needs to be aware of so as not exacerbate or complement the harms propagated by the audited system. We go further to provide tangible illustrations of these concerns, and conclude by reflecting on what these concerns mean for the role of the algorithmic audit and the fundamental product limitations they reveal.