Pramila Jayapal Leads Push To Halt Federal Use Of Facial Recognition
WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal and four other Democratic lawmakers have reintroduced legislation that would prohibit federal agencies from using facial recognition and other biometric surveillance technologies.
The Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act would bar federal agencies from using systems that identify people through their faces, voices, gait or other permanent physical characteristics. The prohibition could be lifted only through a subsequent act of Congress.
Sen. Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, introduced the Senate version, while Jayapal, a Washington Democrat, joined Reps. Rashida Tlaib, a Michigan Democrat, and Ayanna Pressley, a Massachusetts Democrat, in introducing the House version.
The lawmakers said the measure responds to increased government use of biometric technology, including a mobile facial-recognition application used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. They said such systems have been used to target immigrants, protesters and communities across the country.
“We have to stop the constant, nonconsensual state of surveillance that we live in, and that starts with placing a moratorium on our government’s use of facial recognition technology,” Jayapal said.
“Black and Brown people are more likely to be misidentified and wrongfully put in jail because of this unregulated technology, and our government has used it to unjustly target protestors and immigrants,” she said. “Putting the brakes on this technology is necessary to protect civil rights and ensure public safety.”
The lawmakers cited research indicating that the faces of nearly half of American adults are already stored in facial-recognition databases. They also cited research saying Black, Brown and Asian people could be up to 100 times more likely than white men to be incorrectly identified by facial-recognition algorithms.
“Facial recognition and other biometric technologies in the hands of government agencies have become tools of authoritarianism,” Markey said, adding that agencies such as ICE and CBP are using the technology to track, target, intimidate and surveil communities across the country.
The bill would prohibit federal money from being used to purchase or operate biometric-surveillance systems. It would also condition certain federal grants to state and local governments, including law enforcement grants, on the adoption of similar moratoriums.
Information collected through biometric systems in violation of the proposed law could not be admitted in judicial proceedings. People whose biometric information was used unlawfully would be allowed to bring private legal actions, while state attorneys general would also receive authority to enforce the measure.
States and local governments could adopt their own laws regulating facial recognition and other biometric technologies.
“Every American who values their right to privacy, stands against discrimination, and believes people are innocent until proven guilty should be concerned about facial recognition technology fueling a national surveillance state,” Merkley said.
Tlaib said facial-recognition systems could incorrectly identify people as criminal suspects.
“Facial recognition technology is racist, misidentifying Black, Brown, and Asian residents and pinning them as suspects in crimes they did not commit,” she said.
The measure has additional Democratic cosponsors in both chambers, including Sens. Ron Wyden and Elizabeth Warren and several House Democrats.
Civil liberties and digital-rights organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Electronic Privacy Information Center, Access Now and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights support the bill. (IANS)
