I think the comparison with smartphones misses the point, >You can leave your phone at home, switch it off, or put it in airplane mode. Makes it something ent

I think the comparison with smartphones misses the point, >You can leave your phone at home, switch it off, or put it in airplane mode. Makes it something entirely different. The core characteristics of facial recognition are 1) No need for a cooperative, consenting subject 2) Not alerting the subject being identified and no protection against being identified without noticing 3) Unchangeable identification characteristic We already have reliable easy to use systems for characteristic 1 and 3, fingerprints, and I see how there might be a need for such systems at specific locations. For example at a police station or border checkpoints. Then we have facial recognition which is a lot less accurate and its only additional benefit is point 2. Point 2 however has no positive use cases, its a purely totalitarian instrument aimed at its scale-ability. For not only being used in specific places but everywhere. You cant even make the argument which makes nuclear weapons a worthwhile technology to have, the possible usage for war against a foreign aggressor. Facial recognition is only beneficial to keep a population suppressed.