Google reportedly targeted people with 'dark skin' to improve facial recognition

Subcontracted workers were told to persuade subjects to agree to face scans, mischaracterizing them as a 'selfie game' or 'survey'

Facial recognition technology's failures when it comes to accurately identifying people of color have been well documented and much criticized. But an attempt by Google to improve its facial recognition algorithms by collecting data from people with dark skin is raising further concerns about the ethics of the data harvesting.

Google has been using subcontracted workers to collect face scans from members of the public in exchange for $5 gift cards, according to a report from the New York Daily News. The face scan collection project had been previously reported, but anonymous sources described unethical and deceptive practices to the Daily News.