Dr., Adjunct Professor Mika Nieminen works as Principal Scientist at VTT, Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd. His key areas of expertise are research and innovation organizations, policy and systems. Nieminen has published extensively including books, articles, edited volumes and research reports. He has served as journal editor, conference organizer, and member of various boards. He has also participated in policy and organization evaluations and development. His current research interests cover especially systemic innovations and transformations, development of impact assessment methods and Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) related questions.
Topic of speech:
Ethical Questions of Facial Recognition Technologies
While facial recognition technology is utilised increasingly across the globe, there are extending debates on the ethical aspects and acceptability of facial recognition. Such issues include e.g. that facial recognition is not an accurate tech, it is creating step by step everywhere reaching “surveillance state”, there are challenges with individual privacy and data security, as well as it may have distorting effects on democratic processes. It is suggested, among other things, that facial recognition technology needs to be well regulated, system needs to be transparent and include “bias checks” as well as there needs to be an administrational procedure for correcting technological and social biases and faults in the system.
