A Bill in Congress Would Limit Uses of Facial Recognition

This week IBM, Amazon, and Microsoft all said they would halt sales of facial recognition to US police and called on Congress to impose rules on use of the technology. A police reform bill introduced in the House of Representatives Monday by prominent Democrats in response to weeks of protest over racist policing practices would do just that. But some privacy advocates say its restrictions aren't tight enough and could legitimize the way police use facial recognition today. "We're concerned," says Neema Guliani, senior legislative counsel for the ACLU in Washington, DC, citing evidence that many facial recognition algorithms are less accurate on darker skin tones. She urges a federal ban on facial recognition "unless and until it can be used in a way that respects civil liberties;" Guliani says it's not clear that that is possible.