Petition link at the bottom
More cops and government agencies are beginning to use facial recognition technology without our knowledge or input.
In the law enforcement’s hands, this technology becomes a tool of dystopian surveillance. Not only can police gather biometric data without your consent, but they can track or target you and your community. Biometric surveillance has massive and troubling implications for the First Amendment. Facial recognition means that law enforcement can know everything from who exactly you spend time with to where you protest and then keep tabs on you afterwards.
On top of this, facial recognition software has been proven to be faulty, inaccurately identifying women and people of color. Examining the accuracy of facial recognition programs reveals that the error rate for white men is much lower than the error rate for black women. This translates to real life situations in which an algorithms cannot correctly identify one black person from another leading to unfair arrests in a population that already over policed and unjustly targeted.
That’s why law enforcement use of facial recognition should be banned
I just signed a petition on telling my local Action Network telling my local lawmakers to ban facial recognition software. Tell your local officials to do the same. .
On May 14th, San Francisco became the first city to ban facial recognition software in all city departments, safeguarding its citizens from invasive technological surveillance.
Facial recognition software is proven to be faulty, inaccurately identifying women and people of color. In the government’s hands, the technology becomes a tool of dystopian surveillance, leading to mass racial profiling, targeting of political dissidents, and nonconsensual gathering of biometric data.
If even San Francisco, home to many tech giants, can make the right decision on this software, then other cities and towns can follow suit. Sign the petition to tell your local and state officials: “Facial recognition surveillance violates our rights and doesn’t make us safer. Pass legislation to ban this invasive spying.”