Law could ban facial recognition in U.S. public housing

Three Democratic representatives will present to the United States Congress a new legislation that prohibits public housing that is funded by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to employ technology such as facial recognition to control their tenants.

Representatives of the democratic party will introduce the proposed the “No Biometric Barrier” law to the Housing Statute this week, in order to ban the use of facial recognition and other biometric technologies in housing due to the privacy problems involved.

As indicated, this law would only affect those homes that are financed by HUD and would prohibit all public housing from using any type of facial recognition technology.

Yvette Clarke, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib, members of the Congress, will be in charge of proposing the bill and – according to Cnet – the new legislation would also force the HUD to write and deliver a report on the impact that facial recognition has had on public housing and its tenants.

This legislation is the first bill at the federal level to regulate the technology that landlords sometimes use to monitor their tenants, due to the controversy related to privacy and the use of cameras and this type of technology in public areas.

Although many defend the security provided by facial recognition, there are already cities like San Francisco, Oakland and Sommerville in the United States that have banned the use of this technology from government agencies.

K. Tovar

Source: Europapress