San Francisco prohibits the recognition system …

An order bursts in the debate for the surveillance state, as countries fight to announce facial recognition systems
to guarantee supposed improvements in security. At the heart of San Francisco's technology industry, they banned the use of this type of software for the defense of privacy and civil liberties. The city, where the most important companies were born in recent years, has become the first to end this identification program with images or videos, which began to be used in China and which has already proven around the world. world, including Buenos Aires
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Police and government agencies will no longer be able to badyze the faces of people with security cameras, after the city council felt that their use opened the door to increased law enforcement crackdown. State, as has been verified in some countries they have already put into operation. Just a few weeks ago, the government of Buenos Aires announced with fanfare and cymbals a façade recognition program for Prófugos, with 300 rotating cameras to identify citizens. It's the same technology that has now questioned San Francisco justice.

"With this vote, San Francisco said that surveillance technology was incompatible with a healthy democracy and that people deserved a voice in the decisions regarding advanced surveillance," said the US-based union activist. Civil Liberties, Matt Cagle, in an interview. interview with the Financial Times.

Although the ordinance does not affect the entire US territory, where the system is applied in more than 50 states, the ban in this city resonates because it is precisely where the world's most powerful technology companies, such as Google and Facebook, were born. Head, whose engineers pioneered the design of face and face recognition systems for commercial and consumer applications. Therefore, many experts say that it is a big warning for everyone. "The fact that a community in which they create the systems are the first to prohibit shows the serious damage caused by this type of technology," they say.

The ordinance will also require that all new surveillance equipment be approved by municipal leaders, who may also request measures "to verify that mandatory civil rights and civil liberties guarantees have been strictly observed".

"We can have security without being a state of security, we can have good surveillance without being a police state," said supervisor Aaron Peskin, who drafted the legislation. The lawyer emphasized the importance of creating a climate of trust with the community based on good information and "not Big Brother technology". Studies have shown that systems failed and functioned less accurately in the recognition of African Americans, which increased the risk of misidentification.