LOS ANGELES — Slixa.com is addressing a growing concern over facial recognition technology with a new article by Laura LeMoon, titled, “What Facial Recognition Software Means for Sex Workers.”
The article explores how this new online tool is opening the door to safety and privacy threats and what that means for the future of sex work.
“For sex workers — who, the world over, are more often than not highly criminalized — this could have even more detrimental and devastating effects to our abilities to make a living and provide for ourselves and our families,” LeMoon explained. “If a sex worker got caught up in the legal system, then it would be very easy for law enforcement to find a digital trail of crimes committed online. Every sex worker with an online ad would now be easy to connect to the crime of alleged prostitution.”
“Even worse, the cop who pulls you over for speeding or a broken taillight [could] simply go on an iPad or smartphone and run a current photo against a database of other photos of your face taken from your online presence,” LeMoon noted, and added, “the internet is rapidly becoming a less-and-less predictable means for sex workers to make income and survive, and facial recognition software [would] only compound these vulnerabilities… without the surface web, the options for sex workers to advertise online would have to move completely to the dark web.”
LeMoon opines that while facial recognition is scary, it’s also something that isn’t going away — and in fact, will probably become a bigger part of daily life. The full article is available here.
