[unboggling]

Originally Posted by MelBr

… The issue is that even if you're not a threat, you can still be categorized and put into some undesirable category. It's the "false positive" issue. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precision_and_recall

These Type I and II errors then cause this type of situation: http://news.yahoo.com/google-pressur...140900667.html ...

True. But such situations occur regardless of the specific technology used. For example, while receiving a speeding ticket you ask the police officer for directions to the club where you're meeting someone. An hour later a team of cops raid the club and arrest you for murder. Because it turns out the precinct's computer was temporarily down, and the officer who wrote the speeding ticket belatedly recognized the name of a wanted person, which matches your name. So you spend a couple hours in jail saying "but you've got the wrong guy" until the precinct's computer comes back up and they realize your fingerprints, address, and social security number are different, so free you with apologies.

It is a similar issue to this: Guns don't kill people. People use guns to kill people. The technology is a set of tools. The tools can be used responsibly, or they can be abused. Or simply accidentally misused.