A controversial California bill aimed at allowing businesses and government agencies to use facial recognition on customers stalled in the state legislature Wednesday, relieving privacy activists who argued the bill’s passage would’ve given too much leeway on how the controversial technology is used.
Assembly Bill 2261, introduced by Democrat Ed Chau, would have allowed state agencies and businesses to use facial recognition on customers without consent, as long as the facial recognition was used for “security and safety” purposes and with probable cause that the individual being analyzed had committed a crime.
