Endangering rights and freedoms, San Francisco prohibits facial recognition

Eight of the nine members of the California city council have voted in favor of the new legislation, which will be officially approved next week and should be approved.

"The propensity of facial recognition technology to endanger civil rights and freedoms far exceeds its benefits," says the text. Facial recognition could also "exacerbate racial injustice and threaten our ability to live without the constant vigilance of the government".

The prohibition is part of a broader regulation aimed at regulating surveillance systems and obliges municipal bodies wishing to use them to obtain prior authorization from city council.

"It will be illegal for any ministry to obtain, retain, access or use any facial recognition technology or any information obtained with this technology," reads one. paragraphs of this detailed document.

The ban will not apply to city airports or other federally regulated facilities in the United States.

San Francisco is an epicenter of the US technology industry and hosts major companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Uber and Google.

Proponents of the ban fear possible face-to-face identification errors as well as continued violation of privacy, while supporters argue that it can enhance security.

Stop Crime SF, a local organization, said facial recognition "can help locate lost children, people with dementia, and fight bad trafficking." For its part, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has stated that facial recognition may, on the contrary, "be used pbadively without requiring the knowledge, consent or participation of the person". .

In China, the authorities use facial recognition to identify the Muslim minority of the Uyghurs, according to the New York Times.

A month ago, when Diego SantilliDeputy Head of Government of Buenos Aires and head of the Ministry of Security introduced this system to the city, said that it was impossible from the human point of view to remember the thousands of faces sought by justice, this that technology can do. "It's only for people who are wanted by the courts, nobody will want 30,000 people to have an arrest warrant and we will not be able to take them," he said.