Now, more than ever, it is important to learn the basics of Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) bias and the impacts on Māori communities. Recent developments include: New Zealand considering Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) for retail stores with an advisory panel of no Māori, AI drones for the military, government agencies and employment recruiters are using Facial Recognition Technology (FRT), and international world super powers are ignoring human rights with autonomous drones that use facial recognition in the military to kill people in war zones such as Ukraine.
Colonial settlers once collected our ancestors heads, now governments and businesses want your face.
This free resource of Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) videos, podcasts, and articles for our whānau Māori and others to learn about the issues and bias with Facial Recognition Technologies (FRT). The videos can be watched by yourself or in communities. The more educated we all are, the more we can advocate for change.
As Māori, we know there are risks with the implementation of Facial Recognition Technologies (FRT).
FoodStuffs NZ implemented their FRT trial roll out after and during consultation with the Privacy Commission, but the details still remain secret.
The first public victim of Foodstuffs FRT trial was a Māori woman, who I will not name in this post. This innocent Māori mother was accosted by large men at the supermarket in Rotorua as the FRT system miss identified her brown face, and the men didn’t believe her that their image was not her, despite being showed multiple forms of identification. She told me of the emotional and mental trauma of that incident and how the Privacy Commissioner and Foodstuffs offered little to no support and largely ignored her.
While Foodstuffs reported back to the Privacy Commission of the trial, and made some high level stats public, those details are still secret. It did however release some high level statistics. ConsumerNZ critiqued the Foodstuff’s numbers and found them to be misleading and that there were likely more victims. Yet, we still await the report by the Privacy Commission to be released.
The Privacy Commission put out a public consultation over the 2024-2025 Christmas break, ensuring that many would be on summer holidays, and that the most vulnerable in our communities who will likely be targeted by FRT, would not be able to submit feedback, assuming they could read read and digest the academic style paper.
Furthermore, without publicly advertising the roles, exercising a large degree of nepotism, the Privacy commission set up a Māori advisory group, with a majority of the people with the same affiliations to one group that is heavily focused on their own interests, with a well documented track record of ignoring individual experts and Māori communities. In particular this group stated to the Minister of Technology in relation to AI, that the risks to Māori would not be an issue. Now we have a majority of that group advising the Privacy Commission about the risks to Māori with FRT.
It took an OIA request and the members permissions to find out details of this then private Māori advisory group members and the establishment of the group. A direct breach of any Māori representative group. None of the Māori advisers have facial moko, AI expertise, privacy or experience with FRT. The few Māori experts with FRT expertise in the private sector and academia were ignored. Highlighting again the need for greater transparency and to ensure Māori representatives are qualified in the roles they are in.
The Department of Internal Affairs ran a FRT trail that showed likely bias with Māori and wearers of traditional Māori tattoos- moko.
Despite all of these facts, New Zealand has no regulation and no obvious intent for regulation in this area, for FRT. We must ensure that our most vulnerable, our individuals and whānau Māori can learn more about FRT and the dangers and look at how we can utilise FRT for cultural good, perhaps with taonga species identification.
The links below can be viewed by whānau anywhere, even at the mare. These are two video documentaries, one audio and a government online course, all of which are free and that I recommend. Whānau, please share widely and empower our whānau and communities.
Video documentaries and podcast
- Your face is ours: The dangers of facial recognition software • FRANCE 24 English Video
- Coded Bias Video
- Biometrics 101 created by NZ DIA. Online Course
- ‘If you have a face, you have a place in the conversation about AI,’ expert says Audio
Some of my other writings
- NZ Government Facial Recognition Technology
- Facial Recognition and Artificial Intelligence Profiling
- Facial Recognition trial report obfuscates risks to Māori
- Inconsistencies with Facial Recognition Trial
- First Māori woman victim in facial recognition trial in a month
- Māori Cultural considerations with Facial Recognition Technology in New Zealand
- Māori being used as ‘guinea pigs’ for facial recognition tech by MSD
Media articles relating to Facial Recognition Technologies.
A wide range of New Zealand media that focuses on Māori bias with FRT, the links below are worthwhile. There are also hundred of academic papers and international media if you want to explore more.
- AI expert concerned ‘no Māori with moko’ used in DIA facial recognition test cleared of racial bias
- Foodstuffs North Island’s facial recognition trial: do the numbers add up?
- Why AI facial recognition has a discrimination problem
- Risk Māori and Pasifika will face discrimination over police’s expanding use of biometric data – expertThe Importance of Prioritizing the Human Factor in Automated Systems
- The Importance of Prioritizing the Human Factor in Automated Systems
- Supermarket facial recognition failure: Why automated systems must put the human factor first
- Foodstuffs facial recognition trial: AI mistaking Māori woman as thief not surprising, experts say
- Facial recognition fails tech and ethics tests
- Should we be worried about AI stealing, replacing our faces?
- NZ shops trial facial recognition in response to retail crime
Image created with Gemini. Prompt: “create an image of facial recognition technology and a maori person”