Software
The State House of California considers a contentious facial recognition bill
As protesters protest around the country against police forces, California is drafting a bill that could expand the state's use, including for law-enforcement purposes, of facial recognition.
The bill would establish an environment for companies and government agencies, introduced as Assembly Bill 2261, to legalize facial recognition, provided they give prior notification and receive users' opt-in consent.
Since February this plan has slowly progressed through the state legislature and this week the Assembly Budget Committee is debating it. It is an important security mechanism for supporters, and requires more drastic uses of technology that is readily accessible.
Ed Chau, the bill's assembler, called the bill a "long overdue solution to regulate private, state or local public bodies' use of facial recognition technology," in the CalMatters editorial on Tuesday.
But the bill will only further expand technology use — including the U.S. Union of Liberties of North California — say critics. We argue, in particular, that establishing the legal requirements for the use of this technology undercuts the explicit prohibition imposed by a number of municipalities in California, including San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley.
Matt Cagle, the technology and civil liberties attorney at Northern California's ACLU, said in an official statement that, "Assemblée member Chau has repackaging this bill so that it may seem to be more pleasant during a public santé crisis. "As a reaction to COVID-19, AB 2261 utterly fails. In such a time we will spend, not waste money on risky and wasteful technology, in public health.
Activists and researchers have strongly criticized the use of facial recognition by the police. A 2019 study by the Center on Privacy and Technology of Georgetown found that police often incorrectly used commercial systems, either by introducing fraudulent faces, or by darkening images to obtain the desired result.
