The current consumer privacy framework in U.S. law is outdated, allowing corporations to invade a user’s privacy using technology without consequence. In 2013 & 2020, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported this issue to Congress, yet nothing has changed (Cackley 2020). iSeeU plans to change this by demonstrating to the public how powerful technology already is in invading user privacy, specifically facial recognition technology.
The choice to focus on facial recognition technology is an intentional one by the authors, as rather than conquer the impossible task of addressing every single technology that can invade a person’s privacy, focusing on facial recognition makes more sense as it is the most unavoidable in the authors’ opinion since it does not require a person to have or use anything.
iSeeU uses facial recognition technology to target the user with advertisements based on demographic information determined from the user’s image. iSeeU then explains how no legal controls on this technology prevent it from being abused (Cackley 2020). iSeeU finishes by asking the user to take two specific actions. The first is to bring awareness to the issue by sharing iSeeU with their social networks. The second is to ask the user to contact their congressional representatives to ask for legal controls on this technology, hopefully leading to a much-needed update to the consumer privacy framework in U.S. law.