MINNEAPOLIS — The Minneapolis City Council has voted to ban the city from buying or using facial recognition technology and data, with limited exceptions.
In a news release, the city said council members heard from residents concerned "about how the technology could be used to capture people’s faces without their consent and conduct widespread automated surveillance."
“We have heard strong concerns from community about technology that invades their privacy without their consent, and we need to regulate it,” Council Member Steve Fletcher said in a statement. “This ordinance bars its use by City departments with some narrow exceptions that do not risk harm to its subjects.”
The city's news release states that facial recognition technology has been shown to lack accuracy in identifying people of color and women.
“Facial recognition technology works pretty well if you look like me – a middle-aged white man – but for everyone else, it can fail at rates that we would not accept anywhere else,” Fletcher said. “It is unacceptable for us to subject people in our city – particularly women of color – to such a high level of risk.”
Under the ordinance, city departments that want to use facial recognition programs must file for special permission, in a process that's transparent to the public.
According the city, Minneapolis joins Boston, San Francisco and several other major cities across the country that have approved bans or limitations on facial recognition technology.
