Open letter to the Boston City Council: Privacy concerns about Boston’s facial recognition ban.
I commend the Boston City Council for unanimously passing a ban on the use of facial recognition technology by any agency under the City of Boston’s authority. The actions taken by the City Council are the first step in reducing racial discrimination and misidentification by the Boston Police Department and other City agencies.
While the ordinance bans city officials from using facial recognition obtained by non-city agencies, it does allow the Boston Police Department to use information by other third-party agencies. This creates a loophole for city agencies to rely on non-government entities to collect data using facial recognition surveillance programs and still be compliant with the ordinance.
Read more of Joe Cadillic’s open letter on MassPrivateI