Mall of America's new AI-fueled facial recognition tech sparks pushback
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Privacy advocates and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are raising concerns about the Mall of America's use of AI-fueled facial recognition technology.
Why it matters: The expansive shopping and entertainment center says the tool will help keep customers and staff safe, but critics argue it presents privacy and civil rights concerns.
The big picture: The mall has made several public safety changes in the wake of gun-related incidents in recent years.
- Police, retail stores, airports, and sports arenas across the nation have also ramped up adoption of facial recognition and other forms of biometric surveillance.
Catch up fast: The mall announced in late June that it has integrated "advanced facial recognition technology into its security system."
- The goal, MOA said, is to help its staff identify "persons of interest" — a category that can include everyone from wanted criminals to missing children.
How it works: The system, made by a company called Corsight, scans the mall's security video feeds and looks for matches to a "person of interest" (POI) photo database.
- Those POI photos are uploaded by staff, and the security video isn't stored if a match isn't identified, the mall says.
The other side: While MOA says the technology is over 99% accurate, critics are worried about false positives, especially for people of color.
- "The first issue that we have is that there's problems with accuracy," Munira Mohamed, a policy associate with the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, told MPR News.
- "It's not always guaranteed that the technology will work."
The intrigue: State Sens. Omar Fateh (DFL-Minneapolis) and Eric Lucero (R-Saint Michael) — legislators who are polar opposites on most political issues — issued a joint news release slamming MOA's decision.
- They called it a "direct assault on privacy" that creates a clear "potential for racial profiling, harassment, and false arrests."
What we're watching: Fateh called on fellow legislators to "regulate or ban this alarming new technology" as soon as possible.
What they're saying: "At 5.6 million square feet, our officers cannot be everywhere at once," MOA vice president of security Will Bernhjelm said in a statement.
- The technology "will allow us to more quickly do what we are already doing," he added.
The bottom line: MOA says security guards won't act on an alert from the system alone.
- In a statement, the mall said it plans to use "up to three layers of human visual review," and Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges told MPR that his officers won't make arrests "without the human checks and balances."