YOUNGER PEOPLE IN Ireland are less likely than older age cohorts to trust State bodies and companies to use facial recognition technology responsibly, new polling reveals.
The poll, conducted by Ireland Thinks/The Good Information Project, shows that 49% of people overall would trust An Garda Síochána to responsibly use facial recognition tools, while 39% would trust government departments to use the technology in a responsible way.
Just 18% of people polled said they would trust financial services providers, 6% said they would trust big tech companies and 2% would trust online advertisers to use these types of tools responsibly.
42% of people polled said they would not trust any of these groups or organisations to use the technology responsibly.
This type of technology is already being used by government and law enforcement agencies across the world. The technology is used at border crossing to process those travelling into a country and in criminal investigations to match faces to profiles already held on a system. Some schools in China in recent years began using the facial recognition technology to track attendance of pupils.
Facial recognition tools are also already being used by various types of businesses. Recent releases of some smartphones use this technology to unlock the device.
The research was carried out as part of The Good Information Project’s focus this month on the new digital age.
The Ireland Thinks polling found there were significant differences in the levels of trust across the age cohorts with those aged 18-34 (34%) and 25-34 (30%) less likely to trust An Garda Síochána to use these tools responsibly, compared to those aged 55-64 (56%) and those aged over 65 (62%).
Kevin Cunningham, lecturer at TU Dublin and managing director of Ireland Thinks, said the percentage of people that say they would trust none of the options – and how it changes by age group - is particularly interesting.
“This rises as you got down through each age group, from 27% among those aged 65+, up to 61% of those aged 18-24,” he explained.
“There are similar differences in party preferences between Fine Gael voters and People Before Profit voters and in terms of educational attainment where those with a third level degree are also less likely to trust facial recognition technology.”
The poll also asked respondents whether they favoured verification of identity on social media. While 72% overall were in favour, again there was an age gap.
“There is a genuinely fascinating correlation between the age of the respondent and the likelihood that they agree with the use of identity verification on social media,” Cunningham said.
“While 86% of those aged 65+ agree with identity verification, this figure declines with each age group to 79% among 55-64-year-olds, 77% among 45-54-year-olds, 61% among 35-44-year-olds, 58% among 25-34-year -olds and then in the minority, 45% of 18-24-year-olds.
“While there is a sharp gap between those that grew up with social media from those that did not, there are also generational differences among those that did not grow up with these new technologies.”
Again, there were gaps in views depending on the respondents’ political leanings. Fianna Fáil (87%) and Fine Gael (82%) voters were overwhelmingly in favour of identity verification.
Respondents who identified as Green Party voters were more cautious, with 60% stating they were in favour while 33% said they were not. Among Solidarity-People Before Profit voters, 65% were against identity verification on social media, with just 27% stating they favoured it.
Younger people in the poll were more likely to say they spent too much or far too much time on their smartphones, with 59% of the 18-24 group saying they spend far too much time on their devices, compared to 33% overall across all age cohorts.
Overall, one third of people said they spend far too much time on their smartphones, 28% spend too much time, 20% spend slightly too much time, 18% felt the amount of time on their device was about right and 1% said they spent slightly too little time on their smartphone.
Respondents who had a Leaving Certificate level of education or higher were more likely to say they spent too much time on their smartphones.
Those aged 18-34 are also most likely to continue with some of the digital activities they took part in during the pandemic, such as video calls for work meetings, online grocery shopping and group video calls with friends.
Overall, 34% of people said they are likely to continue with video calls for work, 21% will continue buying groceries online, 20% will keep up group video calls with friends and 12% will continue to watch cultural events online, while 44% in the poll said they will not continue to do any of these activities post-pandemic.
This work is co-funded by Journal Media and a grant programme from the European Parliament. Any opinions or conclusions expressed in this work is the author’s own. The European Parliament has no involvement in nor responsibility for the editorial content published by the project. For more information, see here.
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