Amnesty International Urges New York City to Ban Facial Recognition Technologies

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The New York City authorities should implement a comprehensive ban of facial recognition technologies because they violate the rights of residents living in areas where the risk of police stop-and-frisk practices is big, Amnesty International said in a report on Tuesday.

“Banning facial recognition for mass surveillance is a much-needed first step towards dismantling racist policing, and the New York City Council must now immediately move towards a comprehensive ban,” Amnesty International artificial intelligence and human rights researcher Matt Mahmoudi said.

The Amnesty International research on the matter showed that law enforcement surveillance operations affect residents who are already targeted for stop-and-frisk, particularly residents of certain New York’s boroughs with non-white populations.

“We have long known that stop-and-frisk in New York is a racist policing tactic. We now know that the communities most targeted with stop-and-frisk are also at greater risk of discriminatory policing through invasive surveillance,” Mahmoudi said.

The researcher pointed out that the “shocking” reach of facial recognition technology affected the entire city and police should reveal its methods of using such means of surveillance.

Such practice violates the right to privacy and threatens the rights to freedom of assembly, equality and non-discrimination, Mahmoudi said.

The New York Police Department (NYPD) used facial recognition technologies at least in 22,000 cases in 2016-2019, according to data by the Decode Surveillance NYC project that mapped more than 25,000 CCTV cameras across New York City.

Amnesty International said it will launch a website that will enable residents to find out how much any route in New York City might be exposed to facial recognition technologies.