Most State Legislatures Have Rejected Bans and Severe Restrictions on Facial Recognition, Per SIA Analysis
With most 2021 legislative sessions concluded or winding down for the year, proposals to ban or heavily restrict the technology have had very limited overall success despite recent headlines. The Security Industry Association (SIA) found that such bills failed to advance or were rejected by legislatures in no fewer than 17 states during the 2020 and 2021 sessions: California, Colorado, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, South Carolina and Washington.
Nearly all the measures would have banned or severely limited use of facial recognition by state and local government entities, without restricting private-sector use. Legislators and witnesses cited concerns about a range of consequences to public safety and various beneficial applications resulting from broad bans and restrictions, versus more targeted policies that could address concerns about the technology without unnecessarily limiting its benefits.