Democratic lawmakers propose facial recognition ban nationwide

The four-member Democratic House and Senate bill sets a critical marker as the debate in Washington intensifies over the creation of a single national standard to regulate facial recognition. It is the first bicameral legislation to be introduced that is reset to facial recognition since the death of George Floyd and the outbreak of protests across the country against unfair police.

However, the bill doesn’t just target facial recognition. Under the broad proposal of Senators Ed Markey and Jeff Merkley, and Representatives Pramila Jayapal and Ayanna Pressley, federal agencies would be prohibited from using or spending money on facial recognition, voice recognition, or gait recognition, unless Congress approves a bill explicitly authorizing in specific contexts

It also seeks to restrict state and local governments from using those technologies by withholding federal funds for criminal justice programs until those governments approve their own bans. States that want rules even stricter than the federal standard would still be allowed to pass them, and Congress would not override them under the bill. And private citizens could sue governments for violating the proposed law, according to the text of the bill revised by CNN Business.

“For years, I have called on companies like Amazon to stop selling facial recognition technology that has not only been invasive, inaccurate, and unregulated, but has also been unapologetically armed by law enforcement against black people in this country for too long, “he said. Jayapal in a statement.

As racial justice protests grew this month, companies like Amazon and Microsoft announced a temporary suspension of sales of facial recognition technology to police departments across the country. In doing so, they called on Congress to develop a common set of rules governing technology. But Thursday’s proposal to directly ban facial recognition could provoke a strong backlash from the tech industry, which has battled similar efforts by smaller-scale state and local officials. Meanwhile, law enforcement officials have championed the use of facial recognition, saying it is just one of many useful investigative tools and that it helps keep communities safe.

Amazon (AMZN) and Microsoft (MSFT) They were not consulted before the legislation was introduced, according to a Democratic assistant. The companies did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The potential human cost of widespread use of facial recognition technology was illustrated earlier this week after the United States Civil Liberties Union filed an administrative complaint with the Detroit Police Department. In the complaint, the ACLU said that a black man, Robert Williams, had become the first known case of wrongful arrest involving facial recognition. Williams allegedly spent about 30 hours in detention after being mistakenly highlighted by a computer algorithm as a possible match against surveillance footage of a local robbery.

“Facial recognition is an especially dangerous form of surveillance,” said Evan Greer, deputy director of the advocacy group Fight for the Future. “This is not just an Orwellian technology of the future, it is being used by law enforcement agencies across the country right now, and it is harming communities right now.”

Advocacy groups supporting the bill include the civil rights group Color of Change; Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights organization; Privacy and Technology Center at Georgetown University Law Center; and the monitoring group Project on Government Oversight, among others.

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