Portland passes broadest facial recognition ban in the US

Authored by edition.cnn.com and submitted by thesbros

(CNN Business) The city of Portland, Oregon, on Wednesday banned the use of facial-recognition technology by city departments — including local police — as well as public-facing businesses such as stores, restaurants and hotels.

Portland joins a growing number of places in the United States, such as San Francisco, Oakland, and Boston, that have outlawed city use of the surveillance technology, which is meant to identify a person from an image of their face. But its decision to prevent both local government and businesses from employing the technology appears to be the most sweeping ban yet by an individual city.

Facial recognition technology has grown in prevalence — and controversy — in recent years, popping up everywhere from airport check-in lines to police departments and drugstores. Yet while it could add a sense of security and convenience for businesses that roll it out, the technology has been widely criticized by privacy advocates for built-in racial biases and potential for misuse

These worries were clearly on the minds of city council commissioners who voted unanimously for the ban. In addition to halting city use of the surveillance technology, the new rule prevents "private entities in places of public accommodation" in Portland from using it, too, referring to businesses that serve the general public — a grocery store or a pizza place, for instance. It does not prevent individuals from setting up facial-recognition technology at home, such as a Google Nest camera that can spot familiar faces, or gadgets that use facial-recognition software for authenticating users, like Apple's Face ID feature for unlocking an iPhone.

OnSnowWhiteWings on September 10th, 2020 at 05:23 UTC »

Look to China on what it looks like when government and corporation are given the power to use recognition software against its people. A comprehensive ban now and for as long as possible is the only way to slow down the inevitable future of it.

je97 on September 10th, 2020 at 02:04 UTC »

Good. This is a blatant violation of your privacy rights. Facial recognition, warrantless wiretapping, bulk data collection all need to be outlawed...but I've been saying this since 2012 so I'm giving up hope.

Hyperdrunk on September 10th, 2020 at 01:11 UTC »

Same city where the judges issued orders to arrested protestors that they aren't allowed to protest for 2 years.

There's a whole legal battle over the rights of people going on in Portland right now.