Will San Francisco Be First To Ban Facial Recognition?
One member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, A Peskin, recently proposed the idea that the city should become the very first in the United States to move forward with banning facial recognition technology in an effort to promote further surveillance oversight.
If passed, the newly proposed suggestion would include an ordinance that would require city agencies to seek the board's approval before they would purchase any surveillance technology.
A growing number of governments around the world have been looking to use facial recognition technology to enhance their surveillance systems.
We can also see the technology being further embraced by various organizations or businesses, whether it be to scan fans before they flow into a stadium for a sporting even, or scanning faces as people depart for a flight etc. Increasingly, we are seeing that this technology is being embraced in various areas of the market and everyday life.
We've been told that it's going to make us safer and make various services more efficient, but people aren't safer when their basic rights to privacy are violated.
Some jurisdictions have already sought to introduce different rules that might enhance the transparency of these surveillance systems but Peski in San Fran has proposed that they should simply ban the facial recognition technology rather than seek to regulate the use of it. He has stated that he personally doesn't see any benefit to the use of these systems, despite many law enforcement agents who might have suggested that it's only going to improve their policing and security efforts.
Microsoft's chief quickly shot down the suggestion that facial recognition tech should be done away with by suggesting that it would be cruel to deprive state agencies of the ability to monitor the public with it.
pics:
pic 1 -pinterest
pic 2 - scmp
Well, that sounds nice, but all that will happen is that "non-govern-cement-agencies" will "own" the facial recognition equipment/software and they will inform their govern-cement friends.
Thus bypassing all kinds of laws and rights.
I would like to say that i believe in the politiroaches of San Fran, but i don't. I believe they are just virtue signalling. As they have already failed on many other human fronts.
And, the problem with facial recognition is not about privacy, it is about govern-cement encroachment. Privacy never really existed. Police drive around with vans that look inside people's homes. The problem is that we have so many laws now that everyone is guilty. That you are just waiting for the police to come and incarcerate you.
If they do, I hope they still "allow" private people and businesses to use the tech. They should only ban themselves.
I'm sure that is not how it will work, though.
it also (the proposal) doesn't address the use of private tech in public spaces
Man I am loving your content, really bringing the Black Mirror to life. As an SF native regularly coming across some of the very folks at the forefront of developing these kinds of facial recognition technologies right in the SOMA, it's a bit ironic (but refreshing) to read this about our beloved "High Tech Ghetto".
i still haven't seen any BM but everyone keeps mentioning it 😄 should i?
thanks for the feedback!✌
@doitvoluntarily you have to! Your posts mirror it's message (no pun intended). It's really the only "television" I've consumed in the past decade (other than another series called Sense8) and it's a mind fuxk. Can give you nightmares but really boggles the mind and forces critical thinking about the direction society is going due to relentless technological advance without much ethical concern for privacy, mental health, liberty, maintenance of the social fabric, etc etc
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Hopefully everywhere gears up to get rid of this stuff what’s happening in China with it and the social credit scores are just scary scary 1984 style stuff , very black mirroresque