Biometrics in the face of death: Facial recognition of the deceased and the making of restless data bodies

Abstract

What happens when dead bodies are identified by Facial Recognition Technologies? This article analyzes the work of the companies Face Forensics , Corsight AI, and Clearview AI in the competition over the most accurate facial recognition technology (FRT) solution for the recognition of corpses, for example, in war situations and humanitarian disasters. Based on empirical studies, the article critically discusses the ways in which biometric data of the deceased and the living are generated, collected, and analyzed in the creation of “cutting-edge” FRT software for identifying dead bodies. This trend, so the argument, is not fully captured by the paradigms of bio-, thanato-, or necropolitics, but is expressive of a body politic that animates data bodies , biometric data of the deceased, to render them productive. In answering why and how this matters, this article develops two concepts: the term restless data bodies collects critical questions about the amount and type of biometric data used, and the ways in which data bodies are rendered lively for the project of dead body identification. The second concept, posthumous biovalue , is an extension of Catherine Waldby's “biovalue” and describes the yield produced by the biometric reformulation of death and dying. The notion allows us to interrogate those practices that mobilize restless data bodies for the production of value in the economic and political sphere. Eventually, both concepts are tools to reflect on what it means to lay a body to rest.