San Francisco May Ban the Use of Facial Recognition
San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to pass the Stop Secret Surveillance Ordinance, which would ban the city and county law enforcement agencies from retaining, accessing or using facial recognition systems.
The Stop Secret Surveillance Ordinance states, "The propensity for facial recognition technology to endanger civil rights and civil liberties substantially outweighs its purported benefits, and the technology will exacerbate racial injustice and threaten our ability to live free of continuous government monitoring."
The ordinance, introduced by San Francisco supervisor Aaron Peskin, would also require public input and the supervisors’ approval before agencies buy surveillance technology with public funds, including the purchase of license plate readers, toll readers, closed-circuit cameras, body cams, biometrics technology and software for forecasting criminal activity such as gunshot detection hardware and services, says a news report.
The ordinance also specifies the use of surveillance technology should be used by agencies only "in exigent circumstances".
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