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domingo, 2 de junio de 2019

BioEdge: Facial recognition banned in San Francisco

BioEdge: Facial recognition banned in San Francisco

Bioedge

Facial recognition banned in San Francisco

by Nic Zumaran | 2 Jun 2019 |

Facial recognition technology has been banned in San Francisco amid fears about the technology’s potential for oppressive surveillance.

The action, which came in an 8-to-1 vote by the Board of Supervisors (San Francisco’s legislative authority), makes it the first major American city to block a tool widely used by police and security forces in the US and elsewhere.

Aaron Peskin, the city supervisor who sponsored the bill, said that the ban sent a strong message to the nation, coming from a city transformed by technology.

“I think part of San Francisco being the real and perceived headquarters for all things tech also comes with a responsibility for its local legislators,” Mr. Peskin said. “We have an outsize responsibility to regulate the excesses of technology precisely because they are headquartered here.”

Critics have suggested that rather than enforcing a ban on the technology, San Francisco should find ways to craft legislation that also acknowledge the usefulness of the technology. To this end the local Police Officers Association has indicated the ban would hinder police efforts to investigate crime.

Facial recognition technology is already in wide use for security at the federal level in the US, including international airports, ports, large stadiums as well as more than 30 states allowing local or state authorities to search drivers licence photos.

However civil rights advocates are concerned about the widespread use of facial recognition particularly when the limits and regulations for the technology are unclear.

In 2018 the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called on Amazon to stop selling its technology to law enforcement. It claimed that facial recognition can be used to surveil immigrants or unfairly target African Americans. Perhaps the most concerning example of facial recognition technology is in China, where the Chinese Ministry of Public Security began a quest to build the world’s most extensive facial recognition database. The technology is used for everything from crime detection, financial transactions, and hotel check ins to controlling unrest amongst ethnic minorities.

Whilst Oakland and other cities may be set to follow San Francisco’s lead on banning facial recognition, concerns about tech collaborations with government agencies remain. Earlier this week Amazon shareholders rejected a proposal to curb its facial recognition service providing information to governments.

A proposed ban in Somerville, a Boston suburb, on has been welcomed by councillor Ben Ewen-Campen who sees the ban as a pause button to allow for further study into the risks and of adopting facial recognition technology.

Nic Zumaran writes from Sydney

An interesting group within the American pro-life movement is African-Americans who oppose abortion. The Rev Clenard Childress Jr, for instance, is a New Jersey pastor who runs a website called Black Genocide. Groups like his highlight the fact that African-American women account for a third of abortions in the US.

This might have been remained a factoid about the US abortion wars, but it was unexpectedly placed on centre stage this week with the Supreme Court's decision in Box v. Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky. Justice Clarence Thomas, the only African-American on the bench, was seething with anger when he reflected on the fate of black babies (see our story below):

abortion in the United States is also marked by a considerable racial disparity. The reported nationwide abortion ratio— the number of abortions per 1,000 live births—among black women is nearly 3.5 times the ratio for white women. And there are areas of New York City in which black children are more likely to be aborted than they are to be born alive—and are up to eight times more likely to be aborted than white children in the same area.

Journalists who bothered to report his remarks shook their heads and described him as loopy. He's not. That abortion has a disproportionate impact on the poor and disenfranchised is a blot on American society. For a touching comment on this, check out this rap song from a group called Flipsyde, Happy Birthday.