San Francisco votes to ban city use of facial recognition technology

By Jeffrey Dastin

 

City Supervisor Aaron Peskin speaks before a vote on a surveillance technology ordinance that he sponsored, in San Francisco, California, U.S., May 14, 2019. REUTERS/Jeffrey Dastin

 

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - San Francisco officials on Tuesday voted 8 to 1 to ban the purchase and use of facial recognition technology by city personnel, in a move to regulate tools that local Silicon Valley companies helped develop.

 

The ordinance, which also would require city departments to submit surveillance technology policies for public vetting, can become final after a second vote next week by the same officials, the city's Board of Supervisors.

 

The action puts San Francisco at the forefront of increasing discontent in the United States over facialrecognition, which government agencies have used for years and now has become more powerful with the rise of cloud computing and artificial intelligence technologies.

 

"We have a fundamental duty to safeguard the public from potential abuses," Aaron Peskin, the city supervisor who championed the ban, said before the board's vote.

 

Peskin said the ordinance was not an anti-technology policy. It allows continued use of surveillance tools like security cameras; the district attorney or sheriff can make an appeal to use certain restricted technology in exceptional circumstances as well.

 

Rather, Peskin said, the aim is to protect "marginalized groups" that could be harmed by the technology.

 

For instance, Amazon.com Inc has come under scrutiny since last year for selling an image analysis and ID service to law enforcement. Researchers have said this service struggles to identify the gender of individuals with darker skin, prompting fears of unjust arrests. Amazon has defended its work and said all users must follow the law.

 

Civil rights groups and companies including Microsoft Corp, which markets a facial recognition service, have called for regulation of the technology in recent months. This has added momentum to the effort in San Francisco and to a parallel ban reportedly in the works in nearby Oakland.

 

For a draft text of the San Francisco ordinance, see https://bit.ly/30jkPuJ

 

While communities at the heart of the technology industry are moving to limit facial recognition, police elsewhere have increased their use, primarily to spot potential suspects in known offender databases after a crime has occurred.

 

U.S. customs agents are vetting foreign travellers at airports with facial recognition, and other federal agencies use the technology too.

 

Daniel Castro, vice president of the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, said concerns that the U.S. government would use face identification for mass surveillance, like China has, were overblown. The non-profit includes technology industry representatives on its board.

 

San Francisco's "ban on facial recognition will make it frozen in time with outdated technology," he said.

 

(Reporting By Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco; editing by Bill Berkrot and Cynthia Osterman)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-05-15

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Good!

Excellent news.

While all the sheeple were engrossed in their mobile phones, governments are actively moving to universal surveillance.

I'm quite happy that I'll probably be dead of old age before it reaches its ultimate conclusion.

Edited May 15, 20197 yr by thaibeachlovers

Ironic and telling, because as Silicon Valley has shown in the past (limiting their own children's access to screens) , now balking at being subjected to the technology they would subject others to, they are cognizant of the inherent dangers of the technology.  I expect in 20 years time, major lawsuits like the tobacco and pesticide companies are being subjected to.

That's positive news and while they're at it, ban people from pooping on the sidewalks. 

6 hours ago, webfact said:

 

For instance, Amazon.com Inc has come under scrutiny since last year for selling an image analysis and ID service to law enforcement. Researchers have said this service struggles to identify the gender of individuals with darker skin,

So, it doesn’t work. 

Good for them!  I am tired of having my privacy offered up to the false god of security.  We all know it’s about government control/surveillance.  With all the tech out there I feel far less secure than I did 20 years ago.

Homeless everywhere, thousands of used and upcaped hypodermic needles on the street, and human sh!t everywhere, and this is what they choose to deal with?

This is what happens when you elect a hulking ghetto black female without a father, raised in the ghetto, brother in jail, sister overdosed. 

Yeah. She is used to problems. 

Help me out here. A prominent left city in a prominent left state votes against authorities controlling people?

I thought that's what the left and/or dems want, no?

very good choice ! freedom first !

only square head brains can be favorable to mass facial recognition database, and absurd system only loved by China and of course red necks "trumphish"  voters with their - 10 IQ

8 hours ago, Jerry787 said:

very good choice ! freedom first !

only square head brains can be favorable to mass facial recognition database, and absurd system only loved by China and of course red necks "trumphish"  voters with their - 10 IQ

You have a better guy for president?

11 hours ago, hugocnx said:

Help me out here. A prominent left city in a prominent left state votes against authorities controlling people?

I thought that's what the left and/or dems want, no?

So the facts before your eyes are conflicted with the misinformation in your head.

 

How is anyone else going to help you out with that?

3 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

So the facts before your eyes are conflicted with the misinformation in your head.

 

How is anyone else going to help you out with that?

Oh?, got up early this morning? Typical reaction.

Edited May 16, 20197 yr by hugocnx