San Francisco Bans Facial Recognition

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors have passed a resolution to limit the use of surveillance technology by city departments. San Francisco will now require surveillance impact reports, annual audits, and review by the city controller. EPIC led an effort – "Observing Surveillance" – in Washington, DC after 9-11 to document the growing use of surveillance cameras in the nation's capital that led to limitations on video surveillance by the City Council. EPIC is currently seeking to limit the use of facial recognition technology at the border. The Madrid Privacy Declaration called for a "moratorium on the development or implementation of new systems of mass surveillance, including facial recognition, whole body imaging, biometric identifiers, and embedded RFID tags, subject to a full and transparent evaluation by independent authorities and democratic debate."