Giving Compass' Take:

• Vox highlights a way to tell if your university may be using the controversial technology of facial recognition.

• What are the potential hurdles that come along with this technology?

• Read more about whether or not facial recognition technology makes schools safer. 

Facial recognition, a controversial technology that can identify individuals by scanning and analyzing their features in real time, is coming to college campuses across the US.

Some colleges see the technology as a way to increase safety in dorms and keep expelled students, former employees, registered sex offenders, and other unauthorized people from setting foot on campus.

But the digital rights group Fight for the Future says the risks outweigh the benefits — and they’ve unveiled a new “scorecard” to grade which schools are weighing those risks appropriately.

“If we don’t speak out, soon every campus could be equipped with invasive technology that monitors everything we do, including who students hang out with and what they do outside of class,” the group’s website says. “It’s time to stop facial recognition on campus before we have no liberties left!”

The concern about mission creep in this context makes sense. Although the conversation about bringing facial recognition to campuses started out being about safety, some companies are already hyping the tech as a way to track classroom attendance and resident assistants.

What’s more, if students feel they’re being surveilled, that could lead to a chilling effect on freedom of speech, assembly, and religion. It’s not hard to imagine some students becoming too nervous to show up at a protest, say, or a mosque, especially given the way law enforcement has already used facial recognition tech to identify and arrest protesters.

Read the full article about colleges using facial recognition by Sigal Samuel at Vox.