Today, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill placing a
temporary moratorium on facial recognition technology in the
state’s schools. The new law will not only help protect privacy
in New York, but it will also hinder one aspect of the federal
surveillance state.
Assm. Monica Wallace�(D-Lancaster) introduced Assembly Bill
6787 (A6787)
in March. Sen. Brian Kavanagh (D-NYC) sponsored the Senate
companion bill (S5140). The
legislation bans the purchase and use of biometric identifying
technology, including facial recognition technology, by New York
public and nonpublic elementary and secondary schools until July 1,
2022, or upon the completion of a full review on biometric
surveillance in schools.
The bill establishes a commission to study whether biometric
technology is appropriate for use in New York schools, and if so,
what kind of restrictions should be placed on their use. This
creates an opportunity to implement a permanent ban or at least
substantial limits on facial recognition in New York schools.
In June, the Assembly passed A6787 by a 118-21 vote. The
Senate approved the
measure 46-14. With Gov. Cuomo’s signature, the law goes into
immediate effect.
The Tenth Amendment Center is part of a
coalition of more than 40 organizations that pushed for the
passage of this bill. That coalition put significant pressure on
Cuomo to enact the legislation. In August, the coalition sent
a letter to the governor urging him to sign the bill.
Enactment of A6787 takes the first step toward limiting
biometric surveillance and facial recognition in New York by
temporarily halting its use in schools and creating a process for
further limits in the future.
It will also hinder a federal program to create a nationwide
facial recognition surveillance database.
IMPACT ON FEDERAL PROGRAMS
A recent
report revealed that the federal government has turned state
drivers’ license photos into a giant facial recognition database,
putting virtually every driver in America in a perpetual electronic
police lineup. The revelations generated widespread outrage, but
this story isn’t new. The federal government has been
developing a
massive, nationwide facial recognition system for years.
The FBI rolled
out a nationwide facial-recognition program in the fall of
2014, with the goal of building a giant biometric database with
pictures provided by the states and corporate friends.
In 2016, the Center on Privacy and Technology at Georgetown Law
released “The Perpetual Lineup,†a massive report on law
enforcement use of facial recognition technology in the U.S. You
can read the complete report at perpetuallineup.org. The
organization conducted a year-long investigation and collected more
than 15,000 pages of documents through more than 100 public records
requests. The report paints a disturbing picture of intense
cooperation between the federal government, and state and local law
enforcement to develop a massive facial recognition database.
Become an Activist Post Patron for just $1 per month at Patreon.
“Face recognition is a powerful technology that requires
strict oversight. But those controls, by and large, don’t exist
today,†report co-author Clare
Garvie said. “With only a few exceptions, there are no laws
governing police use of the technology, no standards ensuring its
accuracy, and no systems checking for bias. It’s a wild
west.â€
There are many
technical and legal problems with facial recognition, including
significant concerns about the accuracy of the technology,
particularly when reading the facial features of minority
populations. During a test run by the ACLU of Northern
California, facial
recognition misidentified 26 members of the California
legislature as people in a database of arrest photos.
With facial recognition technology, police and other government
officials have the capability to track individuals in real-time.
These systems allow law enforcement agents to use video cameras and
continually scan everybody who walks by. According to the report,
several major police departments have expressed an interest in this
type of real-time tracking. Documents revealed agencies in at least
five major cities, including Los Angeles, either claimed to run
real-time face recognition off of street cameras, bought technology
with the capability, or expressed written interest in buying
it.
In all likelihood, the federal government heavily involves
itself in helping state and local agencies obtain this technology.
The feds provide grant money to local law enforcement agencies for
a vast array of surveillance gear, including ALPRs, stingray
devices and drones. The federal government essentially encourages
and funds a giant nationwide surveillance net and then taps into
the information via fusion centers and the Information Sharing
Environment (ISE).
Fusion centers were sold as a tool to combat terrorism, but that
is not how they are being used. The ACLU pointed to a bipartisan
congressional report to demonstrate the true nature of
government fusion centers: “They haven’t contributed anything
meaningful to counterterrorism efforts. Instead, they have largely
served as police surveillance and information sharing nodes for law
enforcement efforts targeting the frequent subjects of police
attention: Black and brown people, immigrants, dissidents, and the
poor.â€
Fusion centers operate within the broader ISE. According
to its
website, the ISE “provides analysts, operators, and
investigators with information needed to enhance national security.
These analysts, operators, and investigators…have mission needs
to collaborate and share information with each other and with
private sector partners and our foreign allies.†In other words,
ISE serves as a conduit for the sharing of information gathered
without a warrant. Known ISE partners include the Office of
Director of National Intelligence which oversees 17 federal
agencies and organizations, including the NSA. ISE utilizes these
partnerships to collect and share data on the millions of unwitting
people they track.
Reports that the Berkeley Police Department in cooperation with a
federal fusion center deployed cameras equipped to surveil a
“free speech†rally and Antifa counterprotests provided the
first solid link between the federal government and local
authorities in facial recognition surveillance.
In a nutshell, without state and local cooperation, the feds
have a much more difficult time gathering information. Passage of
state laws and local ordinances banning and limiting facial
recognition eliminates one avenue for gathering facial recognition
data. Simply put, data that doesn’t exist cannot be entered into
federal databases.
Source:
Tenth Amendment Center
Michael Maharrey [send him
email] is the Communications Director for the Tenth Amendment
Center. He is from the original home of the Principles of ’98 –
Kentucky and currently resides in northern Florida. See his blog
archive
here and his article archive
here. He is the author of the book,
Our Last Hope: Rediscovering the Lost Path to
Liberty. You can visit his personal website at
MichaelMaharrey.com
and like him on Facebook HERE
Subscribe
to Activist Post for truth, peace, and freedom news. Send
resources to the front lines of peace and freedom HERE! Follow us on
SoMee,
HIVE, Parler, Flote, Minds, MeWe and Twitter.
Provide, Protect and Profit from what’s coming!
Get a free issue of Counter
Markets today.
Signed by the Governor: New York Puts Moratorium on Facial
Recognition in Schools
