Berkeley , California became the fourth U.S. city to pass a ban on all government purpose of facial identification technology on Tuesday night come after a unanimous yes voting by the City Council .
Congratulations to the people of Berkeley , CA . You showed up , you wrote in , and your City Council heard you .
Berkeley ’s City Council has voted unanimously to ostracize government use of face surveillance .
Photo: (Getty)
— EFF ( @EFF)October 16 , 2019
Two other cities in the state , Oakland and San Francisco , have already reach their own bans on governing role of facial acknowledgement tech , while Governor Gavin Newsomrecently signed a billbanning its use on police trunk cams for several class . Somerville , Massachusetts , alsopassed a similar lawthis summertime .
In a letter of the alphabet proposing the change to the city ’s municipal code recorded in themeeting ’s agenda , Berkeley councilmembers Kate Harrison and Cheryl Davila wrote that the potential use of human face recognition to track persons en masse shot would be an crying violation of the Fourth Amendment . They also wrote that the technology take issue from stationary surveillance camera by “ [ eliminating ] the human and juridical element behind the existing warrant system , ” in which government functionary have to establish that surveillance is both constitutional and sufficiently narrow to protect the right of those direct .
“ Due to the inherent dragnet nature of facial recognition technology , governments can not sensibly support by swearing or affirmation the particular persons or things to be seized , ” the councilmembers pen . “ The programmatic mechanization of surveillance fundamentally undermines the residential district ’s liberty . ” They also pointed to arecent editorialby Secure Justice executive directorBrian Hoferand ACLU lawyer Matt Cagle that it took San Francisco X to compile intelligence files on over 100,000 mass by 1973 , whereas face acknowledgement could enable them to “ stockpile entropy on 100,000 residents in a few hour . ”
The dystopian potential of facial recognition technology has already been demonstrated in China , where the governance hasemployed the methodas it swept anestimated million membersof the Uighur nonage into assiduity camps and recently follow out rulesmandating face scansfor those signing up for internet or getting a new phone telephone number . Meanwhile , inquiry has designate the engineering is also indiscriminate : 28 members of Congress weremisidentified as criminalsin one test , while Amazon ’s Rekognition software has reportedly shown seriousracial and gender bias . ( Despite pitching it to fuzz andfederal immigration authorities , Amazon has shown a disturbing lack of concern for how Rekognition could be abused by customers beyond some handwavey referencesto its term of service . )
“ The epidemic spread of facial recognition is a human right crisis , ” Evan Greer , deputy director of pro - privacy and anti - censorship group Fight for the Future , said in a program line . “ But we still have a luck to draw a line in the sand . The local advocates and lawmakers in Berkeley who legislate this ban are show us the path . Our surveillance incubus are not inevitable . We ’re fighting to ostracize government use of facial realization everywhere . ”
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