Thread by @internetfreedom

Over the last year, the use of Facial Recognition has spiked sharply. To map its future in India, we're beginning a series where we dive into the influence of political & social movements on FRT regulations #AroundTheWorld. We start with the USA.
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internetfreedom.in/facial-recogni…

The USA is a federal republic and thus citizens are subject to regulations at local, state and federal levels.

This table illustrates regulations at city+state levels. In addition to bans/ordinances/etc many jurisdictions are in the process of enacting laws to regulate FRT.
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What factors have influenced regulation? Foundational analyses by experts & activists have played a big role ever since it was determined that the use of this tech would lead to exclusionary and discriminatory outcomes.
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Some examples:
1. 2016, Georgetown: Use of FRT by the police disproportionately affects African Americans perpetuallineup.org
2. 2018, Buolamwini, Gebru: FRT systems had higher error rates while identifying women and POCs gendershades.org/overview.html
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In 2018 @ACLU reported that @amazon's FRT Rekognition incorrectly matched 28 Congress members with people who had been arrested, with POCs disproportionately affected. In 2019 ACLU and 60+ groups urged Congress to place a moratorium on FRT for law enforcement and immigration.
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During the 2020 #BlackLivesMatter protests, high-tech surveillance of African American activists and reporters helped drive police brutality. Companies like IBM, Amazon and Microsoft announced that until federal laws were put in place, they would not sell FRT to the police.
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During the 2021 Capitol riots, use of FRT by police and security agencies was one of the foremost ways in which rioters were being identified. This posed a complexity for regulation and is an ongoing process of policy debate as a federal level ban is considered.
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Demands for federal legislation are increasing but bills like 2019 Commercial FR Privacy Act, 2020 Ethical Use Of FR Act, 2020 Facial Recognition and Biometric Tech Act, George Floyd Justice In Policing and Advancing Facial Recognition Act have failed to move forward.
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This year a bipartisan bill titled “Fourth Amendment Is Not for Sale Act” was introduced. It can ban the U.S. govt/law enforcement from buying user data sans warrant and is aimed at Clearview AI which is infamous for illegally pulling images from social media for its tech.
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We hope this analysis helps guide researchers, advocates + groups on the path towards a legal framework for FRT regulation in India. Under #ProjectPanoptic we call for a ban on govt entities and security/intelligence agencies using FRT. Sign the petition!
panoptic.in