Facial recognition technology: is it ready to be used in public health surveillance?

Facial recognition technology (FRT) is one of several artificial intelligence (AI)-based technologies used during the COVID-19 pandemic to control the spread of the virus. As planning for future pandemics is currently underway, this technology is envisioned as an efficient tool to track infected individuals and collect real-time surveillance data.1 When properly used, FRT can support governments’ strategies to implement public health surveillance,2 which is defined in the literature as ‘the systematic collection, storage, usage, and dissemination of personal information to identify an outbreak and mitigate the spread of disease’.

Nonetheless, FRT presents some ethical and legal challenges, such as its use without ensuring consent from the individuals under surveillance, the protection of biometric data collected through surveillance, and the risk of using this information for other purposes besides public health.4 Despite being widely deployed in countries such as Russia and China, for pandemic purposes and beyond, western jurisdictions are much more reluctant to adopt it.