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When does pervasive public surveillance start to infringe on our basic rights?

My respect deepened for Satya Nadella after Microsoft’s erudite CEO recently expressed his strong views about the need for clear societal parameters governing the rising commercialization of facial recognition systems.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last month, Nadella expressed his concern about facial recognition, or FR, being used for intrusive surveillance and said he welcomed any regulation that helps the marketplace “not be a race to the bottom.”

Granted, his comments come after the horses have already left the starting gate. Most recently, CBS news disclosed how FR systems have been deployed by a half dozen North Texas law enforcement agencies, in some cases with little public awareness.

Yet, there is ample opportunity for captains of industry and political leaders to tilt towards a greater public good on this issue. This will only happen if consumers stay informed, consider what’s at stake and make their voices heard.

Thanks to advances in digital sensors, processing power, data analytics and neural networks, FR has become lightning fast and stunningly accurate. FR works by applying algorithms to images of a human face, correlating the contours of the eyes, nose, lips, ears and chin. It can be very passive. Non-intrusive sensors adept at tracking faces on the move can be placed in hidden nooks; algorithms can be set to even gauge emotions.