Majority (55.5 percent) were equally worried about the privacy of medical records, DNA data, and facial images collected for precision health research
Uses of facial images and facial recognition technologies – to unlock a phone or in airport security – are becoming increasingly common in everyday life. But how do people feel about using such data in healthcare and biomedical research?
Through surveying over 4,000 US adults, researchers found that a significant proportion of respondents considered the use of facial image data in healthcare across eight varying scenarios as unacceptable (15-25 percent). Taken with those that responded as unsure of whether the uses were acceptable, roughly 30-50 percent of respondents indicated some degree of concern for uses of facial recognition technologies in healthcare scenarios. Whereas using facial image data in some cases – such as to avoid medical errors, for diagnosis and screening, or for security – was acceptable to the majority, more than half of respondents did not accept or were uncertain about healthcare providers using this data to monitor patients’ emotions or symptoms, or for health research.
In the biomedical research setting, most respondents were equally worried about the use of medical records, DNA data and facial image data in a study.
Read more about their findings on Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago