【The Swingin’ Stewardesses】

Source：Wisdom Convergence Information Network Editor：Deals Time：2025-06-26 00:09:44

The The Swingin’ Stewardesseskids, it would seem, arealright. The olds? Well, maybe not so much.

As we slowly devolve into a capitalism-fueled surveillance state, having strong opinions about the place of facial-recognition tech in society simply means you're paying attention. And, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center, the end result of that scrutiny is quite different depending on your age.

Specifically, in a report released Thursday, Pew finds that the public's opinion on both law enforcement's and private corporation's use of facial-recognition tech varies wildly with the age of the individual being asked.

Contrary to the oft-repeated stereotype that younger generations don't care about privacy, older adults tend to express more permissive views of facial-recognition technology than younger adults. And while it matters whether you're asking about law enforcement's use of the tech versus, say, a private company's, the age discrepancy remains.

"A mere 5% of Americans have a great deal of trust that technology companies will use facial recognition responsibly"

"Fewer than half (42%) of 18- to-29- year-olds think it is acceptable for law enforcement agencies to use facial recognition to assess security threats in public spaces," reads the study. "But that share rises to 55% among those ages 30 to 49, to 65% among those ages 50 to 64, and to 76% among those 65 and older."

Importantly, it's not like people are unaware of the multitude of risks — including misidentification, possible racial bias, and privacy concerns — that come with facial-recognition tech. Pew's survey of 4,272 U.S. adults, designed as nationally representative sample, found that 86 percent of those surveyed "have heard at least something" about the technology.

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Perhaps that general awareness explains the one big point of agreement across generations. Regardless of age, only a minority of survey respondents trust tech companies to use facial-recognition tech responsibly.

"[Around] one-third of U.S. adults trust technology companies to use facial recognition technology responsibly, and just 18% trust advertisers with these technologies," notes the report. "Indeed, a mere 5% of Americans have a great deal of trust that technology companies will use facial recognition responsibly, and just 2% have high levels of trust in its use by advertisers."

Then again, that might be simply more of an indictment of tech companies' reputations than an outright critique of facial-recognition technology.

The Pew study contains additional and perhaps unsurprising revelations about Americans' views of surveillance tech being pushed by corporate behemoths like Amazon. Notably, a respondent's race plays a role in where they land on the controversial issue.

"[A] larger share of whites (64%) finds the use of facial recognition in public spaces by law enforcement to be acceptable relative to the shares of blacks (47%) or Hispanics (55%) who say the same," notes the report.

This finding gains addition import when one considers the fact that facial-recognition tech is notorious awful at identifying people of color. A 2016 report from Georgetown Law's Center on Privacy & Technology notes that "several leading [facial-recognition] algorithms performed worse on African Americans, women, and young adults than on Caucasians, men, and older people, respectively."

SEE ALSO: Here's why San Francisco's vote to ban facial-recognition tech matters

These biases inherent in the tech have real-world consequences. If a facial-recognition system can misidentify members of Congress as arrestees, what chance do you stand at coming out of this without a scratch?

The Pew study suggests that many of those most at risk of falling victim to facial-recognition tech's biases are also opposed to the technology's use in the wild. At least someone's paying attention.

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【The Swingin’ Stewardesses】

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