What is a major privacy concern associated with facial recognition technology?

• A. It has no impact on privacy concerns.
• B. It always accurately identifies individuals with no bias.
• C. It could potentially violate civil rights and liberties, especially affecting people of color.
• D. It is fully regulated and monitored.

Answer: (C)

Biometric identifiers like faces enable identifying and tracking people across different places and times, often without explicit consent. The main privacy concern is that facial recognition could violate civil rights and civil liberties, and this risk disproportionately affects people of color due to biases in the technology and higher false-identification rates. When the system misidentifies someone or is used to surveil communities more heavily, it can lead to unwarranted scrutiny, policing, or profiling, eroding privacy and freedom in everyday life.

Context helps it click: the technology relies on data about faces, which is highly sensitive and can be stored, shared, and cross-referenced with other data. This creates potential for broad, persistent surveillance and misuse by both authorities and private actors, with weak oversight in many settings. So this privacy concern isn’t just about isolated mistakes; it’s about systemic risks to civil rights and liberties, especially for marginalized groups.

The other statements don’t fit because facial recognition does have privacy implications, the technology is not inherently accurate or unbiased in all cases, and regulation is not fully comprehensive or uniformly enforced across regions.