San Francisco prohibits facial recognition technology

The city of San Francisco prohibited the use of facial recognition technologies at police departments and other government agencies

The decision of the city is due to the fact that there is currently some concern about how intrusive some of the technologies with respect to security and surveillance issues can become.

With the measure San Francisco becomes the first city in the United States to prohibit the use of the aforementioned technology. Other regions such as Oakland and Berkeley, in California, are also performing some very similar movements.

The ordinance was approved in San Francisco with 8 votes in favor and 1 against. It prohibits facial recognition because it is considered too damaging to civil liberties of citizens.

In addition, the legal framework creates a process for the police department to reveal what kind of technology they use, such as plate readers and cell site simulators that can track population movements.

For his part, Brian Hofer executive director of the group of privacy defense Secure Justice, said: “Facial surveillance technology is a great legal risk and civil liberties due to its significant error rate, and it will be worse when it becomes a mass surveillance perfectly accurate that tracks us as we move in our daily lives.”

L.Sáenz

Source: Fayer Wayer

You might also like