EPIC, Coalition Urge Oversight Board to Suspend Face Surveillance

EPIC and over 40 organizations have urged the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board to recommend the suspension of face surveillance systems across the federal government. The Board advises the government on new threats to privacy. The groups said “the rapid and unregulated deployment of facial recognition poses a direct threat to ‘the precious liberties that are vital to our way of life.’” Last year, the Public Voice coalition called for a global moratorium on face surveillance. The Declaration was endorsed by over 100 organizations and several hundred experts in over 40 countries. EPIC previously called for DHS to suspend the use of facial recognition technology. EU leaders are now considering a ban on the use of facial recognition in public spaces, “for up to five years until safeguards to mitigate the technology’s risk are in place.”