Face recognition and similar technologies make it possible to identify and track people in real time, including at lawful political protests and other sensitive gatherings. Widespread use of face recognition by the government--especially to identify people secretly when they walk around in public--will fundamentally change the society in which we live. It will, for example, chill and deter people from exercising their First Amendment protected rights to speak, assemble, and associate with others. Countless studies have shown that when people think the government is watching them, they alter their behavior to try to avoid scrutiny. And this burden falls disproportionately on communities of color, immigrants, religious minorities, and other marginalized groups.

Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai supports a temporary ban on facial recognition technology in the European Union. Activists and technologists have called the controversial technology racially biased, and voiced concerns about privacy, regarding its use by governments and law enforcement. "I think it is important that governments and regulations tackle it sooner rather than later and give a framework for it," Pichai told a conference in Brussels, according to Reuters. Alphabet is Google's parent company.

Facial recognition technology significantly reduces the amount of time it takes to identify people or objects in photos and video. This makes it a powerful tool for business purposes, but just as importantly, for law enforcement and government agencies to catch criminals, prevent crime, and find missing people. We've already seen the technology used to prevent human trafficking, reunite missing children with their parents, improve the physical security of a facility by automating access, and moderate offensive and illegal imagery posted online for removal. Our communities are safer and better equipped to help in emergencies when we have the latest technology, including facial recognition technology, in our toolkit. In recent months, concerns have been raised about how facial recognition could be used to discriminate and violate civil rights.

Amazon's face surveillance technology is the target of growing opposition nationwide, and today, there are 28 more causes for concern. In a test the ACLU recently conducted of the facial recognition tool, called "Rekognition," the software incorrectly matched 28 members of Congress, identifying them as other people who have been arrested for a crime. The members of Congress who were falsely matched with the mugshot database we used in the test include Republicans and Democrats, men and women, and legislators of all ages, from all across the country. Our test used AmazonRekognition to compare images of members of Congress with a database of mugshots. The results included 28 incorrect matches.