Concerned that some new surveillance technologies may be too intrusive, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to ban the use of facial recognition tools by its police and other municipal departments. Although San Francisco and nearby Silicon Valley are hubs of American technology and innovation, local opposition to the ordinance was minimal. Six other Northern California municipalities have recently adopted stricter regulations on the use of surveillance technology. Facial-recognition “poses a threat to people of color and would supercharge biased government surveillance of our communities,” a coalition of 25 privacy, civil rights and justice groups wrote in an April letter to city officials supporting the measure.
— source latimes.com | May 14, 2019