Facial recognition is one of those developments in technology that are a double-edged sword. It actualizes how far technology has come, but its misuse can have disastrous and irreversible consequences. I think that private companies can use facial recognition technology if they feel the need to, but users need to consent to it and not just be automatically opted into it. Facial recognition technology used solely by social media and online platforms is justifiable so long as the use of facial recognition technology is limited to these platforms, but it rarely is. Individuals can hack into these systems and obtain facial recognition information, which users obviously did not consent to, assuming that they gave their consent at all. Either companies have to considerably strengthen their security or they must make it known that their sensitive information being leaked is a possibility. To avoid this all together, I don’t think companies should implement facial recognition unless they can commit to the former and ensure that the latter is not possible. Facial recognition technology should be limited to the platform, however, that is usually not the case. Governmental entities have been known to purchase data from tech companies, which suggests that if the government is using their own form of facial recognition technology, they could use information already available through a platform such as Instagram, Facebook, etc … The exchange of information between tech companies and the government can happen even if the user did not consent to it, this is not ethical by any means but it’s legal. I don’t think that the government should be employing facial recognition technology on every citizen everyday because that’s unnecessary, but I do think it could be a useful tool in combating large scale crime and terrorism. Though, these things happen infrequently, so I don’t think that the government needs to be using this type of technology on a daily, wide spread basis. I also believe that the government should not directly regulate the use of facial recognition on social media. If the technology is being used in a way that users consented to, there is no reason to regulate it, but if the company is misusing the technology then I think the government should regulate that.