Facial recognition: technology and privacy

**updated May 2025**

Classic reviews:

*Bowyer, K. W. (2004). Face recognition technology: security versus privacy.  IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, 23(1), 9-19.

[Journal page] [PDF] [Cited by] [More information]

*Froomkin, A. M. (2000). The Death of Privacy?  Stanford Law Review, 52(5), 1461.

[Journal page] [PDF] [Cited by] [More information]

Other reviews/articles:

*Andrejevic, M., & Selwyn, N. (2020). Facial recognition technology in schools: Critical questions and concerns. Learning, Media and Technology, 45(2), 115-128.

[Journal page] [PDF] [Cited by] [More information]

*Becerra-Riera, F., Morales-González, A., & Méndez-Vázquez, H. (2019). A survey on facial soft biometrics for video surveillance and forensic applications. Artificial Intelligence Review, 52(2), 1155-1187. 

[Journal page] [Cited by] [More information]

*Crawford, K. (2019). Halt the use of facial-recognition technology until it is regulated. Nature, 572(7771), 565.

[Journal page] [Cited by] [More information]

*Kaur, P., Krishan, K., Sharma, S. K., & Kanchan, T. (2020). Facial-recognition algorithms: A literature review. Medicine, Science, and the Law, 60(2), 131-139. 

[Journal page] [Cited by] [More information]

*Martinez-Martin, N. (2019). What are important ethical implications of using facial recognition technology in health care? AMA Journal of Ethics, 21(2), E180-E187.

[Journal page] [PDF] [Cited by] [More information]

*National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2024). Facial Recognition Technology: Current Capabilities, Future Prospects, and Governance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

[Book information] [PDF] [Cited by] [More information]

*Smith, M., & Seumas, M. (2022). The ethical application of biometric facial recognition technology. AI & Society, 37(1), 167-175.

[Journal page] [PDF] [Cited by] [More information]

*Wang, Y., & Kosinski, M. (2018). Deep neural networks are more accurate than humans at detecting sexual orientation from facial images. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 114(2), 246-257.

[Journal page] [Cited by] [More information]

---

For additional sources about the technology of facial recognition and privacy concerns, please see —

Science Primary Literature

Questions?  Please let me know —

engelk@grinnell.edu