The government of China has formally implemented a new rule that makes a facial recognition scan a required part of the mobile registration process. Anyone hoping to sign up for mobile phone services will now need to undergo a scan, expanding on the previous system that only asked customers to provide an identity card. The…
Juul Labs has become the latest company to get hit with an Illinois class action lawsuit for gathering biometric information without proper consent. The e-cigarette manufacturer uses biometrics to verify the ages of customers on its website, and while the information does allow Juul to confirm that online shoppers are legally old enough to purchase…
Ever AI’s announcement that it was rebranding as Paravision this past summer arrived alongside some other big news: the company’s facial recognition algorithm had attained the top ranking in the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s ongoing Face Recognition Vendor Test. Coming after Ever AI had tied for first in the NIST’s Wild Images category…
A large coalition of organizations and trade associations has asked Congress to reconsider public bans on facial recognition technology. The group sent a letter to leading Democrat and Republican lawmakers, encouraging them to establish clear federal guidelines in collaboration with industry representatives. According to the Security Identity Association (SIA), the letter is part of a…
Detroit lawmakers are expressing concern about law enforcement’s use of facial recognition technology. City council member Roy McCalister, Jr. will be discussing the technology at an upcoming community forum, while US Representative Brenda Lawrence is planning to introduce legislation that would regulate the technology at the federal level. The Detroit Board of Police Commissioners formally…
Law enforcement’s unmonitored use of facial recognition technology has come under increasing scrutiny in the past few months. Bernie Sanders has echoed San Francisco and called for a complete ban on the police use of the technology, while Microsoft recently stated that it will refuse to sell its facial recognition tech for mass surveillance. With…
Vimeo is the latest tech company to get hit with a BIPA lawsuit in Illinois. The lawsuit specifically concerns the video editing app Magisto, which Vimeo acquired earlier this year. Filed in Cook County by Bradley Acaley, the lawsuit alleges that Magisto does not obtain sufficient consent for its use of facial recognition data. The…
City officials in Detroit have come to a compromise on police use of facial recognition technology, with an oversight committee clearing it for criminal investigations but banning the technology’s use in live surveillance. Police in Detroit had first started using facial recognition software in 2017, with Detroit City Council having approved its purchase. But as…
Another business may have run afoul of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). Kevin Truss has filed a class action lawsuit against Four Seasons Heating & Air Conditioning Inc., alleging that the Chicago-based company violated the law when it forced him to scan his biometric information in order to clock in and out for…
“It’s worth noting that this latest state legislation is concerned specifically with the use of facial recognition technology through police-worn body cameras…” California’s State Assembly has approved a moratorium on the use of facial recognition technology through police body cameras. The legislation originated earlier this year as an outright ban, and was passed in the…
One of the world’s biggest insurers is warning about the risks of biometric privacy legislation. The warning comes by way of Chubb’s latest Cyber InFocus report, with Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (or “BIPA”) being singled out as one of two salient digital issues in the insurance industry right now. (The other, ‘iEncrypt’, is a…
Two more companies are being taken to court for alleged violations of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). The Cook County Record reports that David Kirby and Araceli Refugio Huerta have respectively filed class action complaints against Gurtler Chemicals and Burger King for requiring employees to scan their biometric information when clocking in for…
A seemingly innocuous test of a biometric attendance tracking system has resulted in Sweden’s first GDPR fine. The fine of 200,000 Swedish Krona was applied by the Swedish Data Protection Authority, or DPA, to the municipality of Skellefteå after it had trialed an attendance tracking system based on facial recognition technology at the Anderstorp High…
“Police use of facial recognition software is the latest example of Orwellian technology that violates our privacy and civil liberties under the guise of public safety and it must stop.” Bernie Sanders has made facial recognition an important component of his campaign platform, calling for a complete ban on the police use of the technology.…
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has weighed in on the recent Appellate Court ruling that cleared the way for a class action lawsuit against Facebook. The lawsuit alleges that Facebook gathered biometric information from users without achieving proper consent. The facts of the case haven’t changed since earlier reports, but the EFF’s breakdown does help explain…
The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has cleared the way for a class action lawsuit against Facebook, ruling that “Facebook users located in Illinois for whom Facebook created and stored a face template after June 7, 2011,” are indeed a certified class entitled to legal representation. The ruling reaffirms the initial decision of Northern…
“It’s aimed primarily at protecting tenants’ privacy, and defending them against potential over-policing.” A trio of Congresswomen have announced a new piece of legislation aimed at banning the use of biometric recognition in most public and assisted housing units funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Billed “The No Biometric Barriers Housing Act…
This week could see the further development of a small but growing trend toward banning the government’s use of facial recognition technology, with the Oakland City Council set to discuss a proposed ban in a meeting scheduled for Tuesday. Introduced earlier this year, the proposed ban would only apply to the municipal government, prohibiting it…
“By protecting the use of Aadhaar authentication on a voluntary basis, the central government is seeking to ensure that Aadhaar can still be used for private sector services.” India’s Parliament has passed legislation allowing citizens to voluntarily use Aadhaar as identification when opening new banking or mobile accounts. The bill, called “The Aadhaar and Other…