Boston Bans Municipal Use Of Facial Recognition

TOPLINE

Boston’s city council has voted unanimously to ban the use of facial recognition technology by the city, joining other cities like San Francisco, Oakland, and Cambridge, Massachusetts, which had previously imposed similar bans on the technology that has been criticized as racially biased and a threat to civil liberty.

KEY FACTS

Critical Quote

The bill’s backer Arroyo argued ahead of the vote that the technology, “has an obvious racial bias and that’s dangerous.” Adding that “It also has sort of a chilling effect on civil liberties. And so, in a time where we’re seeing so much direct action in the form of marches and protests for rights, any kind of surveillance technology that could be used to essentially chill free speech or … more or less monitor activism or activists is dangerous.”

Key Background

Facial recognition technology has drawn criticism from civil liberties and privacy activists, who claim that the technology is both flawed and enables a surveillance state. In recent weeks large tech companies have looked to distance themselves from the technology. Amazon announced that it will “suspend” police use of its controversial facial recognition system, Rekognition, for a year. Similarly, Microsoft has vowed not to sell the technology to police departments in the US until there is a federal law governing its use. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit in Detroit after police wrongfully arrested Robert Williams, an African-American man misidentified by the city’s facial recognition software. Williams’ case is the first known incident of a wrongful arrest taking place due to facial recognition error, raising concerns that similar incidents will follow in the future.