(TNS) – Privacy, civil liberties and racial justice advocates prepare to urge the next Congress and the Biden government to introduce stricter regulations on the use of facial recognition tools and other types of biometric surveillance technologies.
Amid a national debate on policing and systemic racism, groups like the nonprofit Center for Democracy and Technology plan to induce lawmakers from both parties and President-elect Joe Biden to regulate a technology that experts say poses a different threat to color communities in particular in the hands of law enforcement agencies.
“President-elect Biden is committed to eliminating inequalities in criminal justice, and this should extend to some of the technological causes of inequalities, such as facial recognition, which disproportionately negatively affect African Americans,” said Greg Nojeim, a senior counsel at CDT and director of the Freedom, Security and Technology Project told CQ Roll Call.
In a letter to the Biden transition team last month, CDT, along with 29 other organizations, urged federal review teams to “prioritize civil rights and technology stocks” when recruiting staff for the new administration. Federal departments should hire dedicated technology and civil rights staff to review how new regulations would affect vulnerable and underrepresented populations, the letter said.
“With a better understanding of civil rights and technology and a clear policy to address these issues, agencies can create a regulatory environment that encourages companies to develop tools that take into account the equity implications,” the groups said. “Without a wide range of expertise focused on technology policy, the new administration will not produce the equitable results it is seeking.”
Facial recognition software has emerged as the most popular technology for unsettling privacy advocates, and local regulation has begun in places like San Francisco and Boston that have banned its use. Following protests against police violence following the assassination of George Floyd in Minneapolis last May, activists linked the debate over facial recognition to the larger fight for racial justice.
That entanglement means Biden will likely pay attention to the role technology plays in criminal justice, Nojeim predicted.
“There is discrimination throughout the criminal process – surveillance at the beginning and conviction at the end – where technology helps make decisions,” he said. “I can see that President-elect Biden is sensitive to these issues and is making sure that his decisions about technology policy reflect these concerns.”
Still, lawyers don’t take anything for granted. Evan Greer, deputy director of the Digital Rights Group Fight for the Future, another signer of the letter to Biden’s transition team, said her organization is ready to organize anti-surveillance protests similar to those that Fight for the Future is on topics like the web has undertaken neutrality.
“I’m not assuming there is anyone Biden could appoint who magically does all the things we want them to do, especially in the area of surveillance. This has long been an issue that politicians have only been that do what we ask of them, “Greer said.
Hangover After 9/11 Greer acknowledges a difficult road to take in the battle against facial recognition tools, especially in Congress. In the decades since September 11th, lawmakers have largely endorsed surveillance technology and only recently began to question its effectiveness or fairness.
“I’m optimistic that we can see more productive action from lawmakers,” she said. “But even if we don’t, the administration could take action to slow the spread of some of the worst types of surveillance technology or to set fundamental limits.”
For example, Biden’s decision to head the education department could limit the use of facial recognition systems in schools, and his candidate for secretary for housing and urban development could do the same for public housing. Congressional and State Democrats have put both ideas into action, and Biden’s executive action could give a boost to proponents looking to build more support on Capitol Hill.
“There are many ways they can and should be pronounced when it comes to restricting surveillance programs, surveillance agencies, and surveillance technologies,” Greer said. “That gives us time to mobilize, organize and work towards a political situation in which the legislature adheres to something like a federal moratorium on facial recognition.”
The call for a federal moratorium on the use of facial recognition, as well as an outright ban, has grown louder this year, especially among the Liberal Democrats. In February, Oregon Sens. Jeff Merkley and New Jersey’s Cory Booker passed laws banning federal use of the technology until Congress passes law describing specific cases in which it could be used.
In June, Merkley and Senator Edward J. Markey, D-Mass. – together with representatives Ayanna S. Pressley, D-Mass., and Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash. – Laws have been introduced in both chambers to ban the use of face recognition by the federal government and to limit the use of other biometric surveillance measures such as voice recognition. Proponents of the bill cited the case of Robert Williams, a Detroit area man who was arrested for robbery after being misidentified by facial recognition.
“Face recognition technology is fundamentally flawed, systematically biased, and has no place in our society,” Pressley said in a statement. “Black and brown people are already overseen and monitored, and it is important that we prevent government agencies from using this flawed technology to further monitor color communities.”
Industry might welcome regulation Despite the backlash from some facial recognition software makers, Biden would have industry support should Biden choose to regulate the technology. Following last month’s election, the executives of Microsoft and IBM offered their support for federal guidelines for use.
“IBM is ready to work with you on measures to prohibit the use or export of facial recognition for mass surveillance, racial profiling, or violating fundamental human and fundamental rights,” wrote Arvind Krishna, managing director of IBM, in a letter to Biden .
Groups supporting the use of facial recognition tools, on the other hand, say the technology is critical to American control of artificial intelligence innovation. The Security Industry Association, which includes members who make facial recognition instruments, supports the continued use of the technology by law enforcement agencies, but supports measures that would increase transparency.
“It is a US leadership role to ensure that AI is used in a beneficial way,” Jake Parker, senior director of government relations for the group, told WIRED last month.
Proponents say they are ready to go head to toe with private companies.
“Intelligence and technology companies that are able to raise the specter of national security concerns and security are powerful forces in Washington,” Greer said. “Regardless of which party is in the White House, we always have to climb a steep hill to keep gaining momentum and developing policies that really protect people.”
© 2020 CQ Appeal, distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC
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