The latest target of EFF’s action is A.B. 642, a new California bill that would “normalize and incentivize” police use of facial recognition technology across the state. According to the EFF, the law would grant law enforcement agencies “sweeping statutory authority” to use facial recognition tech to “identify and track people” across the state.
Facial recognition is a controversial biometric technology which is becoming increasingly popular among government agencies both in the United States and elsewhere in the world. Face-based identification is also extremely dangerous, and prone to ID errors which have already put several innocent people behind bars. Several California cities have already banned government use of facial recognition, yet the state lawmakers have seemingly decided to take a completely different approach.
