Massachusetts Finds Compromise in Use of Facial Recognition
With the new law, police must get a judge’s permission to run a facial recognition search.
The New York Times reports that, even with a judge’s permission, “someone from the state police, the FBI or the Registry of Motor Vehicles [is required to] perform the search.” In other words, “a local officer can’t just download a facial recognition app and do a search.” The law goes further in creating “a commission to study facial recognition policies and make recommendations, such as whether a criminal defendant should be told that they were identified using the technology.”
The terms of the draft law banned “almost all” government agencies from using facial recognition except the Registry of Motor Vehicles, “which uses it to prevent identity theft.” Otherwise, any agency required a warrant to ask for a search. Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker threatened to veto it. A letter from NBA player Jaylen Brown and his Celtics teammates decried the technology’s built-in racial bias.
The new law is the result of compromise. Crockford noted that it was “politically impossible” to ban the use of facial recognition in the state … [but] that additional guidelines will help prevent abuse and false arrests.”
See the full story here: https://www.etcentric.org/massachusetts-finds-compromise-in-use-of-facial-recognition/
