Tragedy can be heartbreaking, and the Zhengzhou floods in China’s interior Henan province on 2021 Jul 20 is no exception. Within 3 days the area received a year’s worth of rain. This massive rainfall in such a short period of time is a natural disaster. What multiplied this natural disaster were human errors that multiplied the death count. Further, after the disaster and death, to threaten and assault news reporters for reporting on the news is incomprehensible. People need to know what happened so that it does not happen again. Yes, face might be lost in the short-term, but so many people were killed, who did not have the choice to lose face, instead losing their lives. It did not need to be this way.
Facial recognition sunglasses used by Chinese police in Zhengzhou, Henan Province during Chinese New Year.
Facial recognition software has been used in China for quite a while. China has used facial recognition software to scan large gatherings of people in an effort to capture known criminals. The benefit to greater society outweighs all privacy concerns. In North America, we value our privacy and do not want the authorities to accumulate vast amounts of facial recognition data. North Americans believe we should be able to walk around in public and not be recorded for whatever purpose.
