Two weeks before the debut of the Pixel 4 flagship smartphone, giant tech company Google was reportedly pulling the plug to their controversial “field research” program. The company’s “field research” program is said to involve offering subjects in US cities a $5 gift certificate in exchange for their facial scan, according to the New York Daily News which reported that a Google contracting agency was “actively targeting homeless people in Atlanta,'' while also “tricking unwilling college students into participating.”
Originally, the company told us, the idea was to make sure the Pixel 4’s new Face Unlock feature would recognize a diverse array of faces, which could keep it from being biased against people of color — a legitimate concern for facial recognition tech.
According to The New York Times, Google claims it immediately suspended the program and opened an investigation after reading the Daily News’ story. It wouldn’t discuss details with the Times, but did say it’s true it hired contractors from Randstad for the research, the same contractor named in the Daily News’ expose, and Google reportedly called the alleged details “very disturbing.”
What are your thoughts on this one?
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The devil blames his henchmen.
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