By J.E.F. | WASHINGTON, DC
ON MAY 14th, San Francisco’s legislature voted to ban city agencies from using facial-recognition technology. Leading the charge was Aaron Peskin, a member of the city’s Board of Supervisors, the legislative body. In January, when he introduced the measure, he said he had “yet to be persuaded that there is any beneficial use of this technology that outweighs the potential for government actors to use it for coercive and oppressive ends.” That argument proved compelling. Just one of the city’s nine supervisors opposed the ban (though she acknowledged it was “a well-intended piece of legislation”) and the mayor will probably soon sign it into law.
The measure does not ban private citizens or businesses from using facial=recognition technology, or from sharing with police what any facial-recognition enabled cameras gather, subject to board approval. Taylor Swift used the technology to identify stalkers; stadiums have used it to identify banned fans and people transmitting data to bookies. Both of those uses remain legal in San Francisco. The bill does not prevent the technology’s use at airports and ports, which are federally regulated. Nor will anyone who is already using it have to stop: San Francisco’s police department has not deployed it. The ban is designed not to stop abuses, but to prevent them, and to ensure that citizens have a voice in how they are watched and policed.
