American Military News by Randy Billings 11/18/2019
Apple uses it to help users unlock the latest iPhones. Facebook uses it to identify friends and family members in the photos you post. And several airlines are using it instead of boarding passes to screen passengers.
It’s everywhere. But the proliferation of facial recognition technology is raising concerns among civil rights advocates and others who fear the technology will be used to conduct mass surveillance of innocent civilians. Critics also point out the technology is less reliable in identifying people of color or women than white men, which can lead to false-positive identifications of racial and ethnic minorities in criminal investigations.
Now Portland City Councilors Pious Ali and Brian Batson want the city to formally ban the use of facial recognition technology and similar identification tools by city employees, including the city’s police department. If successful, Portland would be the first community in the state – and one of a small but growing number of cities around the country – to enact a ban on the technology.
Portland councilors are scheduled to take up the issue Monday. The discussion comes as Maine’s largest city has embraced so-called
smart-city technology which includes traffic monitoring and has stoked fears about government’s increasing ability to watch over citizens. And Portland’s police officers are now equipped with cameras mounted on their chests to capture video of each person an officer interacts with, another source of concern about privacy.
More:
https://americanmilitarynews.com/2019/11/portland-considers-ban-on-face-scanning-technology/
