Oddbean

@a5ca146b I forget the specific academic article I ran across, but apparently some facilities are using/planning to use facial recognition technology to allow access to gendered washroom spaces. Which will undoubtedly be absolutely perfect and never deny anyone access for any reason including misanalysis of gender, facial differences, skin tone, etc etc etc, amrite??!? 🙄 Discrimination does NOT need further automation. 😡 @b541bfe5

@b541bfe5 As imaginarily-satisfying as this might be, it's not a great idea to be dropping trou' in this way, as there most definitely CAN be serious legal consequences for exposing oneself/public urination/etc. (One of many additional complications to experiencing homelessness, for example: necessary bodily functions are criminalised outside of specific facilities, and such facilities are not necessarily available or accessible. 😢) @a5ca146b

@b541bfe5 Don't discount the possibility that children or disabled people using wheelchairs won't have access either! Even assuming this were useful, where would such scanners be placed? (Remember Calgary's fancy new stair-laden library has an elevator for #accesssibility but they put the buttons up too high for wheelchair users to reach to prevent children from 'playing' with them. (Hopefully this has since been fixed).) @a5ca146b

@c0d42c1a @a5ca146b Even just my scanners at work, I never understood why they have to be so high and inaccessible, and I'm able-bodied. They're just keycard scanners. Whether you wear them on your neck or on your belt, they would be accessible at half the height. They are at head height now, for no reason.

@b541bfe5 Good grief. That's ridiculous! Then again, I've had ETS drivers yell at me for 'taking too long' to tap my ARC card. You know, becuase my hands are otherwise occupied with my crutches and I am not clever enough to carry my card in my mouth or something? 😡 #yeg #yegtransit @a5ca146b

@c0d42c1a @b541bfe5 I helped with some HFE research. The machine vision they tried to employ literally couldn't detect African-American faces. It would bounce back "sorry no face detected" 🤦 I guess we've learned nothing from things like Clearview AI.