The technology is dangerous to racial justice and all our rights.

ACLU Supporter –

For the past few weeks, we've all watched in real-time as the police attack the rights of protesters and the press across the country.

But amidst these unfolding threats to our First Amendment, there is another, more hidden, threat being used by law enforcement and governments alike. That threat is face surveillance. The ACLU has long raised the alarm about this technology, and right now, it's imperative that you know the facts.

You can read a more in-depth analysis from our experts, <[link removed]> but here are the essentials: Face recognition technology grants police unprecedented and dangerous power. It expands intrusive patrols and the enforcement of racist laws and policies – both at protests and in everyday scenarios. And because it can be used in a passive way that doesn't require the knowledge, consent, or participation of the individual, it is usually used in secret, without any oversight.

This is not just a theoretical concern, either. Military-grade surveillance equipment has been deployed by police during protests now and in the past. Florida police have also used facial recognition to charge and convict people under racist drug laws, even when the results may be wrong.

And that last point is significant: This technology has repeatedly been shown to disproportionately misidentify Black and Brown people. A National Institute of Science and Technology study recently found that "African American and Asian people were up to 100 times more likely to be misidentified than white men, depending on the algorithm and type of use."

ACLU Supporter, even one wrong match can lead to false arrests, lengthy interrogations, or even deadly police encounters – all too common racist police abuses that Black people already experience daily.

And while face recognition may be a new development, the use of surveillance against Black people is not. The FBI conducted covert activities against Black leaders who were advocating for full equality in the 1960s – and just last year, we sued the FBI to learn more about its targeting of Black activists today.

Recognizing the harmful and racist implications at work, a number of cities and states are fighting back. San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley, CA, together with Somerville, Cambridge, and Springfield, MA, have banned government use of face recognition. A number of cities and towns will soon be voting on whether to pass similar bills.

And facing mounting pressure, Microsoft finally announced last week that it will not sell face recognition technology to the police. Amazon similarly announced a one-year ban on the sale of its technology to police – after two years of pressure from the ACLU and our partners.

We're urging these companies to do far more, but this is still a clear sign. When even the makers of face recognition start to question the technology, we can no longer deny the threat.

These technologies destroy our rights to anonymity and privacy – and perpetuate our racist criminal justice system. Ending police violence in this country will take a divestment from it as an institution – which includes divesting from surveillance tools that fuel over-policing.

Learn more about the dangers of facial recognition <[link removed]> – and our ongoing fight to end its use. Together, we can make this happen. So be ready for updates on our efforts in this work soon – and thank you for staying informed.

Sincerely,

Neema Singh Guliani
ACLU Senior Legislative Counsel

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