The California state Senate is currently considering legislation that would effectively ban law enforcement in the region from using any facial recognition technology in their body cameras, that so many police departments are now using around the country.

The president of the National Police Foundation suggests that their history of secrecy and lack of transparency is coming back to haunt them on this one.

Despite police from various departments and agencies etc, trying to insist that this technology is necessary for them to do their work, many people aren't buying it and there has been a lot of push back over the facial recognition programs online. Critics are worried about the potential for violations to liberty because of the inefficiency of the tools that might be used. These facial recognition systems have and can misidentify people and when they do, they can quickly ruin lives.

A variety of regions in the US are considering legislation that would ban police from using body cameras that have been linked with facial recognition technology, when they are in public doing their job.

In the UK, their use of facial recognition is being challenged in court on the grounds that it violates privacy of the people and breaches data protection, as well as equality laws.

Increasingly, we see that this technology is being adopted in many spaces, especially with a variety of government agencies eager to embrace the biometric scanning.

The bill that's looking to restrict the use of the technology in California, the one that the senate is currently considering, is backed by groups like the EFF and ACLU, and if it eventually gets passed it will need to be signed up the governor.

Aside from different bills that have been introduced, seeking to prohibit and restrict the use of this technology, there has also been criticism for the increasing prevalence of this technology with police departments in the country, and elsewhere. Not everyone is eager to be scanned while they are out in public, walking down the street.

Facial recognition technology has previously made mistakes and falsely identified individuals, especially when it comes to women and young people. Critics of this technology don't believe that free individuals should have their every movement tracked without their consent, and they see the implementation of this technology as something that is helping to foster that sort of environment.

Amazon has previously admitted and defended their work of assisting police in the US with their facial recognition technology.

They think that if this technology were to be limited then that would mean a lowered standard of living. However, for critics it's quite different. If police are to increasingly adopt facial recognition technology on their body cameras then that would essentially transform those devices into surveillance machines that would be ultimately aimed at the public.

Though facial recognition might now be used in airports, schools, and other venues, that doesn't mean that people are willing to be scanned, or that they'll be eager to accept it, and for now they appear to be increasingly trying to restrict the growth of this technology in their communities.

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