In 2020 IBM terminated its facial recognition program business, writing in a letter to the US Congress:
"IBM firmly opposes and will not condone uses of any technology, including facial recognition technology offered by other vendors, for mass surveillance, racial profiling, violations of basic human rights and freedoms, or any purpose which is not consistent with our values and Principles of Trust and Transparency."
CA Gov. Gavin Newsom Announces Rebuilding of L.A. as a "Smart City," Which Revolves Around FRT
World Economic Forum (WEF) "Young Global Leader" Gov. Gavin Newsom has announced, in remarkably short order before the L.A. fires have even burned out, a plan to implement the WEF "smart city" concept, which will rely on a blanket of facial recognition cameras connected by 5G networks, for everything from payment systems to entry into one's own home. Smart cities have been called "digital concentration camps" by critics.
The Los Angeles Times reported that, coincidentally, the critical, 117 million gallon Santa Ynez Pacific Water Reservoir was "offline" in the heart of the yearly Santa Ana Winds fire season for "repairs to its cover."
Despite its shortcomings, many city police departments are racing ahead with the FRT, as the best thing since sliced bread. Some police are impressed by the "whiz-bang" aspect of the magic-like technology, and may see it as a short cut to solving crimes much easier than old fashioned police work.
Portland Passes the Model BanIn 2020 Portland, Oregon passed the most comprehensive ban on FRT in the nation. Portland's approach outright bans its municipal departments, including police, from using it in any way. Portland goes even further by prohibiting public-facing private businesses, legally known as public accommodations, from employing the technology. The City of Portland designed its legislation as a model for other cities. [Portland ordinance for city agencies] {Portland ordinance for public accommodations]
Portland's main ordinance states:
"Surveillance Technologies are defined as any software, electronic device, system utilizing an electronic device, or similar used, designed, or primarily intended to collect, retain, analyze, process, or share audio, electronic, visual, location, thermal, olfactory, biometric, or similar information specifically associated with, or capable of being associated with, any individual or group.
Face Recognition means the automated searching for a reference image in an image repository by comparing the facial features of a probe image with the features of images contained in an image repository (one-to-many search). A Face Recognition search will typically result in one or more most likely candidates-- or candidate images-- ranked by computer-evaluated similarity or will return a negative result."
The Portland ordinance governing public accommodations, Chapter 34.10, asserts:
"Face Recognition Technologies have been shown to falsely identify women and People of Color on a routine basis. While progress continues to be made in improving Face Recognition Technologies, wide ranges in accuracy and error rates that differ by race and gender have been found in vendor testing."
A leading advocacy group fighting FRT is BanFacialRecognition.com
In other parts of the world some people are going even further. In the UK this month, AI cameras just installed were cut down within hours of going up, image below.
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