Mall of America Embraces Facial Recognition, But at What Cost?
Hold onto your shopping bags, folks, because the Mall of America (MOA) just took a giant leap into the future…and straight into a privacy debate hotter than a Cinnabon fresh outta the oven. You know MOA, right? That behemoth of a mall in Bloomington, Minnesota, where you can literally get lost for days? Well, they’ve decided to spice things up—or freak people out, depending on how you see it—by installing facial recognition technology all over the place.
Peeking Inside the Panopticon: How It Works
Imagine this: you’re strolling through MOA, minding your own business, maybe about to snag a pretzel because, let’s be real, those Auntie Anne’s aromas are irresistible. Little do you know, cameras equipped with fancy facial recognition software are watching you, comparing your lovely visage to a database of “Persons of Interest” (POIs). Now, before you start panicking and yelling “Big Brother” like you’re in some dystopian sci-fi flick, let’s break down how this whole thing supposedly works.
According to MOA, this tech isn’t about spying on every single shopper. They claim it only flags individuals who’ve been: a) caught red-handed trespassing, b) deemed a potential threat (whatever that means), c) red-flagged by law enforcement, or d) reported missing, which, let’s be honest, in a place that massive, wouldn’t be surprising. If the system thinks it’s found a match, security guards get an alert and then, supposedly, do some actual human investigating before jumping to any conclusions. They even claim their security team went through some hardcore training. But, like, who’s training the AI, you know?
MOA’s Big Argument: Safety First (Or Is It?)
Mall bigwigs are all about selling this as a safety measure. I mean, can you blame them? Picture trying to find a lost kid or, God forbid, a dangerous individual in a place that spans a mind-boggling 5.6 million square feet. That’s like searching for a needle in a haystack the size of, well, the Mall of America!
Will Bernhjelm, MOA’s VP of Security, even said, “Utilizing this cutting-edge technology will allow us to more quickly do what we are already doing: identifying individuals of interest and keeping Mall of America and its guests safe.” Basically, they’re arguing that this just streamlines what they’re already trying to do: keep everyone safe and sound. But, and this is a big “but,” at what cost?