More Than Half of U.S. Adults Trust Law Enforcement to Use Facial Recognition Responsibly
A new Pew Research Center survey finds that a majority of Americans trust law enforcement agencies to use these technologies responsibly. A similar share of the public (59%) says it is acceptable for law enforcement to use facial recognition tools to assess security threats in public spaces.
At the same time, the survey finds that the relatively broad acceptance of facial recognition use by law enforcement does not necessarily apply to other entities that might use the technologies. Smaller shares of the public say they trust technology companies (36%) or advertisers (18%) to use facial recognition responsibly. And minorities of the public would find it acceptable for these tools to be used for purposes such as tracking who is entering or leaving apartment buildings (36%), monitoring the attendance of employees at a place of business (30%) or seeing how people respond to public advertising displays in real time (15%).