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Recognition algorithms often make assumptions about the way people "should" be shaped according to their recorded gender or the way the machine attempts to "gue

Recognition algorithms often make assumptions about the way people "should" be shaped according to their recorded gender or the way the machine attempts to "guess" said gender, and a clash in expectations gets flagged and generates false negatives because things aren't in the "right" places it thinks they should be. For a really simple example if this problem, the TSA body scanner machines flag on trans people constantly. It detects as an "unknown mass" if gendered body parts (ie. breasts/genitals) don't match its binary expectations for what gender is marked on their passport. Often they get it coming and going: a trans femme still marked M will get flagged for having breasts, but if they've changed it to F, they get flagged for their genitals instead. Now you get a full grope patdown from a suspicious TSA officer, because a machine was coded to make binary assumptions about bodies.

goatxi 5y ago
It just means that the body scanner is programmed to recognize biological realities (that transwomen are men presenting as women, and transmen are women presenting as men), rather than questionable self-beliefs.
donkarma 5y ago
So we put sex on passports? What is the issue?
- wizzwizz4 5y ago
  > Often they get it coming and going: a trans femme still marked M will get flagged for having breasts, but if they've changed it to F, they get flagged for their genitals instead. An F sex marker isn't going to stop this happening.
- goatxi 5y ago
  One problem is that in some countries (such as the UK), you can legally change your birth certificate to have it record your supposed 'gender identity' in the sex field instead. Your actual sex is erased.
AussieWog93 5y ago
>Now you get a full grope patdown from a suspicious TSA officer, because a machine was coded to make binary assumptions about bodies. No, you get a full grope patdown from a TSA officer because the United States' reaction to 9/11 was disproportionate and insane. In no other free nation on Earth* would a machine detecting a suspicious, dick-shaped lump where your vagina should be cause an airport security agent to want to sexually assault you. *Yes, I'm sure there are a few, and I'm sure someone will respond to my comment with at least one of them.
nyanpasu64 5y ago
Is there a source or explanation for how a proctoring service running on a computer webcam (not a body scanner) would flag students because their outward appearance doesn't conform well to a particular gender distribution? I didn't see any links in the article.

goatxi 5y ago

It just means that the body scanner is programmed to recognize biological realities (that transwomen are men presenting as women, and transmen are women presenting as men), rather than questionable self-beliefs.

donkarma 5y ago

So we put sex on passports? What is the issue?

wizzwizz4 5y ago
> Often they get it coming and going: a trans femme still marked M will get flagged for having breasts, but if they've changed it to F, they get flagged for their genitals instead. An F sex marker isn't going to stop this happening.
goatxi 5y ago
One problem is that in some countries (such as the UK), you can legally change your birth certificate to have it record your supposed 'gender identity' in the sex field instead. Your actual sex is erased.

AussieWog93 5y ago

>Now you get a full grope patdown from a suspicious TSA officer, because a machine was coded to make binary assumptions about bodies. No, you get a full grope patdown from a TSA officer because the United States' reaction to 9/11 was disproportionate and insane. In no other free nation on Earth* would a machine detecting a suspicious, dick-shaped lump where your vagina should be cause an airport security agent to want to sexually assault you. *Yes, I'm sure there are a few, and I'm sure someone will respond to my comment with at least one of them.

nyanpasu64 5y ago

Is there a source or explanation for how a proctoring service running on a computer webcam (not a body scanner) would flag students because their outward appearance doesn't conform well to a particular gender distribution? I didn't see any links in the article.