Portland's facial recognition ban is a major win, especially against Amazon

The city of Portland just took the fight against facial recognition up a notch.

Late Wednesday afternoon, the Portland City Council and Mayor Ted Wheeler voted to adopt two ordinances that will ban use of the tech both by the city, and, in some cases, private businesses. The vote represents a major win in a battle against a biased technology that has led to the wrongful arrest of innocent people.

"The dangers and inequities in the current technology are present and clear," Mayor Wheeler said in Wednesday's streamed City Council session.

Portland joins cities like San Francisco and Boston in banning official city use of the technology, but takes things further by also banning the tech's use in "places of public accommodation" — a term that means "businesses that are generally open to the public and that fall into one of 12 categories listed in the ADA, such as restaurants, movie theaters, schools, day care facilities, recreation facilities, and doctors' offices[.]" Read more...

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