Google had reportedly targetted homeless people for improving face recognition on Pixel 4

Back in July, we had received several reports of Google placing its employees in various US cities to ask people if they were willing to sell their facial data for a $5 gift certificate. The reason was to improve the facial recognition system that the Pixel 4 is going to come with when it is announced on 15 October. However, a new report has revealed some troubling insight on how Google was getting those facial scans and more importantly who it was targeting.[caption id="attachment_6589241" align="alignnone" width="1280"]

Pixel 3a XL.[/caption]The New York Daily News reports Google had been targetting groups of homeless people and tricking college students who were not aware that they were being recorded. The report states that a contracting agency by the name of Randstad had sent teams to Atlanta with explicit instructions to target the homeless and also people of colour. This was to be done often without the targetted person knowing that it was for Google or that they were being recorded."Some were told to gather the face data by characterizing the scan as a 'selfie game' similar to Snapchat, they said. One said workers were told to say things like, 'Just play with the phone for a couple minutes and get a gift card,' and, 'We have a new app, try it and get $5," said the report.While it's not wrong of Google to find out people of colour or homeless for improving its facial recognition software, the way the company has gone about it certainly raises questions.