NYC Council Urged to Limit Business Use of Facial Recognition

Digital rights advocates and lawyers urged the New York City Council to restrict businesses’ ability to use facial recognition technology at places like sports and entertainment venues.

The private sector’s use of facial recognition technology risks misuse and mass surveillance that threaten New Yorkers’ privacy and civil rights, the advocates and lawyers told the council’s Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection at an oversight hearing held Friday.

Some individuals testifying from groups such as Amnesty International, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, and the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project pushed for legislation establishing guardrails around the technology’s use while others called for ...