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Americans Trust Police, but Not Advertisers, to Use Facial Recognition Technology Responsibly

Pew study finds people don't have faith in social networks either

illustration of the outline of two peoples faces with a double helix, arrows and an eye overlapping them — Eighty-six percent of Pew respondents said they had heard something about facial recognition technology.Getty Images

When it comes to using facial recognition technology, most Americans trust law enforcement agencies to use the capability responsibly, but don’t have the same faith in social networks, technology companies or advertisers.

Those were the results of Pew Research Center’s recent survey to determine the country’s opinion on the use of facial recognition technology.

The researcher polled 4,272 U.S. adults in June and found that 56% of them trusted law enforcement agencies to use facial recognition technology responsibly, and 59% believe it is acceptable for those agencies to do so in order to assess security threats in public spaces.

Meanwhile, only 36% of respondents expressed the same trust in technology companies, and just 18% did so for advertisers.

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