Platform Biometrics

This article identifies and analyses the emergence of platform biometrics. Biometrics are measurements of behavioral and physical characteristics, such as facial expressions, gait, galvanic skin response, and palm or iris patterns. Platform biometrics not only promise to connect geographically distant actors but also to curate new forms of value. In this piece I describe Microsoft Face, one of the major facial biometric systems currently on the market; this software promises to analyze which of seven “universal” emotions a subject is experiencing. I then offer a critique of the assumptions behind the system. First, theories of emotion are divided on whether emotions can be reliably and measurably expressed by the face. Second, emotions may not be universal, nor are there likely only seven basic emotions. Third, I draw on the work of Rouvroy and Berns (2013) to identify emotion-recognition technologies as a classic example of algorithmic governance. To outcome algorithmic governance is to enable the subject to creation and govern surveillance.  Platform biometrics will therefore provide a key component of surveillance capitalism’s appropriation of human experience (neuro-liberalism).