A survey to find the three most accepted ways in which government can monitor citizens showed almost one-half of baby boomers choosing social media monitoring, according to a report from BiometricUpdate.com
A survey to find the three most accepted ways in which government can monitor citizens showed almost one-half of baby boomers choosing social media monitoring, according to a report from BiometricUpdate.com
The survey conducted by Accenture, had asked citizens to share their views on the best ways government can keep citizens safe at public events such as parades, political conventions or concerts. The options included social media monitoring, increased government and police collaboration and use of facial recognition and video analytics to stop threats.
Increased collaboration was ranked first at 30 percent while the use of technology to monitor suspicious behavior came in second at 22 percent. Social media received 13 percent support overall, but the difference in the generations that chose this option was striking.
Forty seven percent of baby boomers choose social media monitoring compared to 36 percent of millennials. Men supported facial recognition and video analytics usage more than women.
“The survey demonstrated that generational differences influence how people think about safety,” Ira Entis, Accenture’s Managing Director of Emerging Technology, told BiometricUpdate.com. “Millennials are less receptive of social media surveillance technologies.”
“Education is key to building trust concerning technology, and transparency is especially key to building trust with millennials. Our survey process acknowledges that the human dimension, people, are at the center of decision-making. Service-based design requires people at the center.”
The aim of the study was to understand if public surveillance for safety was beginning to receive better acceptance in the U.S. However, the results show citizens hold mixed views on the matter.
“The litany of opportunities for government to leverage technology include analytics,” noted Entis. “We can expect governments to use publicly available data, including social media and methodologies such as artificial intelligence and machine-learning to expand their service delivery capabilities.”