Boston just became the latest city to ban use of facial recognition technology
Trending News
Boston's city council voted unanimously to ban the use of facial recognition technology by the city Wednesday, WBUR first reported.
The move comes on the heels of pressure from civil liberties advocates and academics who have pointed to faults in facial recognition algorithms. A sweeping federal study last year found that most major facial recognition software is more likely to misidentify people of color than white people.
The Boston ordinance comes the same week that a Black man from Detroit came forward, who says he was arrested and wrongfully accused of theft after a police facial recognition scan matched him to crime scene footage. He was later released from police custody without charges."In a time where we're seeing so much direct action in the form of marches and protests for rights, any kind of surveillance technology that could be used to essentially chill free speech or ... more or less monitor activism or activists is dangerous," Boston city councilor Ricardo Arollo said Wednesday.
Boston's police department had already disavowed the technology and said it hasn't used it, citing concerns that it's unreliable.Amid mounting public criticism of facial recognition technology, several major
Copyright © 2021. Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.For reprint rights. Times Syndication Service.
Next