Invasive facial recognition technology has been a growing problem in the U.S. for years.
The issues with bias within the technology and how it’s often rolled out are well-documented: The ACLU showed how technology used by police departments across the U.S. made more errors when identifying an individual’s gender if they were female or darker-skinned2, while rollouts in predominantly Black communities has been called ‘techno racism’.3
The slippery slope of facial recognition leads to real-time, nonstop surveillance, where daily activities such as shopping and travelling around your community, or activities like attending a protest or political event are monitored, recorded and stored. There is no way to know how this information could be used in the future, or who it could be shared with.
Allowing facial recognition technology opens the door to more intrusive and personal technologies on the horizon, such as automated facial emotion detection, skin texture recognition and even vein mapping. We can’t afford to let this happen.
Recognizing these serious problems, multiple cities have enacted their own bans, including Boston and San Francisco.4 But until now, there hasn’t been an effective bill put forward that could stop this dangerous technology across the country.
The Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act doesn’t just target facial recognition; it would also ban federal agencies from using or spending money on other sinister and anti-privacy technologies like voice recognition and gait recognition.5
This is a huge chance to secure badly-needed protections for privacy. But your reps need to hear from you to know this issue really matters – tell them to support this bill using the form above.