US Lawmakers Call for Facial Recognition Enquiry

In the US, Democratic congressmen are calling for a wide-ranging investigation into facial recognition technology, including its use for ad targeting.

As reported on www.mediapost.com , Democratic Senators Roy Wyden (Oregon), Chris Coons (Delaware), Ed Markey (Massachusetts), Cory Booker (New Jersey) and Representative Jerrold Nadler (New York) sent a letter last week to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), noting recent technological advances and calling for the enquiry. A few days before, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced the results of its own tests of Amazon's facial recognition technology, where it compared a database of 25,000 photos of faces with photographs of members of Congress - the technology (incorrectly) found 28 of the latter among the former, with a disproportionate number being people of color.

Wyden and his colleagues want the GAO to look at the potential impact on privacy and civil rights of the technology's use both by law enforcement agencies and marketers. Their questions for vendors to answer include: 'Please describe the market for selling images, including data brokers that may buy from multiple vendors with the intention of creating individualized profiles for marketing or other purposes'.

The collection of biometric data is currently regulated only in a few states, including Illinois, where Facebook and Google are currently facing lawsuits under the Biometric Information Privacy Act. Facebook is said to hold the 'world's largest database of consumer biometrics data', and has been forced to shut down its facial recognition feature in Europe.