Thread by @doctorow

Cities - and even states - across the USA have passed laws banning the use of facial recognition technology by governments; the most-often cited concern is surveillance and its ability to chill lawful conduct like protests.

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But as my @eff colleague @mguariglia writes for @FutureTenseNow, the risks run deeper than that, as historic debates have shown us. The early 20th century saw debates over "rogues galleries" (police files of photos of criminals and suspects).

slate.com/technology/202…

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As Guariglia writes, "Suspicion is a circular process." In theory you got put into a Rogues Gallery because you were suspicious. In practice, being in a Rogues Gallery MADE YOU suspicious. A single photo taken after a single police encounter turned into an eternal accusation.

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It meant your innocence would be called into question every time a crime was committed, with cops walking through a Rogues Gallery to find their likeliest suspects. An officer's decision to haul you in - often due to overt or unconscious bias - meant a lifetime of suspicion.

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In 1899 Jacob "Doc" Owens - a cheating gambler - went to the NY Supreme Court to have his picture taken out of the NYC Rogues Gallery. He failed, but the national debate he spurred never died down.

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In 1909, 19 year old George B Duffy was arrested for robbery in NYC. It was a bullshit charge, later reduced by the embarrassed NYPD to "obstructing the sidewalk."

Duffy's father began campaigning to have his face removed from the Rogues Gallery.

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The campaign sparked national press coverage deploring the eternal suspicion cast over those who had a bad interaction with a cop. NYC's mayor overrode the police commissioner, had the photo destroyed, and demanded the commissioner's resignation.

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These debates echo through the decade, as we fight over facial recognition: "while people no longer laugh and sneer at people whose faces hang in the police station, they can be denied jobs or passports because of misreadings or misunderstandings buried in hoarded data."

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Guariglia: "the fundamental and historical truth is that face recognition means we are all constantly under suspicion. We’re all in the rogues’ gallery now."

eof/