Facial Recognition Technology Ban: A Victory for Privacy

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/19/opinion/letters/facial-recognition-privacy.html

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To the Editor:

Re “Tech-Savvy City Bans a Crime-Fighting Tool: Facial Recognition” (front page, May 15):

San Francisco’s decision to ban the use of facial recognition technology, or F.R.T., is a victory for civil rights, privacy and the rule of law. This new ordinance can be a pivot point to reverse the tech industry’s relentless drive to reduce our privacy to a pinhead. San Francisco has taken a stand that we all have a basic right to anonymity and privacy while out in public.

F.R.T. is a risk to our First Amendment right to assembly because it chills free speech, making citizens wary of demonstrating for fear of being identified and monitored. Even more important, it poses a threat to both our Fourth and Fifth Amendment protections. A warrant is needed for a cellphone to be searched for personal information. Doesn’t your face deserve the same protection?

What happens when your face in an anonymous crowd can be identified by artificial intelligence and turned into a treasure trove of unreliable personal information for law enforcement?

Once again we can only hope that as San Francisco goes, so goes California, and so goes the nation. Just witness what happened when San Francisco legalized same-sex marriage!

Tim KingstonSan FranciscoThe writer is an investigator at the San Francisco Public Defender and a member of its Racial Justice Committee.