Podcast: Facial recognition is quietly being used to control access to housing and social services

Facial recognition technology is being deployed in housing projects, homeless shelters, schools, even across entire cities--usually without much fanfare or discussion. To some, this represents a critical technology for helping vulnerable communities gain access to social services. In this episode, we speak to the advocates, technologists, and dissidents dealing with the messy consequences that come when a technology that can identify you almost anywhere (even if you're wearing a mask) is deployed without any clear playbook for regulating or managing it. This episode was reported and produced by Jennifer Strong, Tate Ryan-Mosley, Emma Cillekens, and Karen Hao. Strong: So, I'm in lower Manhattan next to some buildings known as Knickerbocker Village. You might hear the subway running up overhead there. So history buffs might know this spot as kind of a birthplace of housing rights. Some of New York City's first regulations on rental housing came to exist here because of the tenants association. These buildings were also among the very first federally funded affordable housing units.