Baltimore City Council Advances Ban on Facial Recognition Tech for Personal, Business Use
The Baltimore City Council’s Public Safety & Government Operations Committee moved on May 26, 2021, to advance a proposal that would ban nearly all applications of facial recognition technology in the city. Prior to the vote, the Security Industry Association (SIA) and other technology and business groups wrote a letter to the committee expressing concerns about the profound negative impact of the measure for residents of Baltimore. The letter noted, “[prohibiting] access to opt-in customer experience conveniences, whether in retail, health care or other settings, is much broader than the concerns raised around law enforcement and government applications.”
While a number of U.S. cities have banned used of the technology by city agencies, the proposal is only the second in the nation after a measure in Portland, Ore., to restrict business use, and the first ever to criminalize even consumer applications of the technology.