WebProNews

Tag: Jeff Merkley

  • Legislation Would Ban Federal Law Enforcement From Using Facial Recognition

    Legislation Would Ban Federal Law Enforcement From Using Facial Recognition

    Senators Ed Markey and Jeff Merkley have introduced legislation that would ban federal law enforcement agencies from using facial recognition.

    In the wake of several high-profile incidents that have helped spark protests and a renewed focus on racial equality, facial recognition has come under heavy fire. While having some usefulness, facial recognition struggles with bias issues, especially related to race, ethnicity and sex. This doesn’t even begin to address the privacy issues the technology raises. Clearview AI is one company that has increasingly been in the news for blatant abuses of privacy through the use of facial recognition.

    The Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act, would address these concerns by prohibiting federal law enforcement agencies from using facial recognition tech. In addition, any local or state agencies seeking federal funding would be required to take similar measures.

    “Facial recognition technology doesn’t just pose a grave threat to our privacy, it physically endangers Black Americans and other minority populations in our country,” said Senator Markey. “As we work to dismantle the systematic racism that permeates every part of our society, we can’t ignore the harms that these technologies present. I’ve spent years pushing back against the proliferation of facial recognition surveillance systems because the implications for our civil liberties are chilling and the disproportionate burden on communities of color is unacceptable. In this moment, the only responsible thing to do is to prohibit government and law enforcement from using these surveillance mechanisms. I thank Representatives Jayapal and Pressley and Senator Merkley for working with me on this critical legislation.”

    It’s unknown whether the bill will be able to gain enough support to pass. Should it succeed, however, it could fundamentally alter the privacy debate and have a profound impact on equality.

  • Senators Introduce Bill to Temporarily Ban Law Enforcement Facial Recognition

    Senators Introduce Bill to Temporarily Ban Law Enforcement Facial Recognition

    Two senators have introduced a bill to temporarily ban facial recognition technology for government use.

    The proposed bill (PDF) comes in the wake of revelations that law enforcement agencies across the country have been using Clearview AI’s software. The company claims to have a database of billions of photos it has scraped from millions of websites, including the most popular social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Those companies, along with Google, have sent cease-and-desist letters to the facial recognition firm, demanding it stop scraping their sites and delete any photos it has already acquired. The New Jersey Attorney General even got in on the action, ordering police in the state to stop using the software when he was made aware of it.

    Now Senators Jeff Merkley (Oregon) and Cory Booker (New Jersey) are calling for a “moratorium on the government use of facial recognition technology until a Commission recommends the appropriate guidelines and limitation for use of facial recognition technology.”

    The bill goes on to acknowledge the technology is being marketed to law enforcement agencies, but often disproportionately impacts “communities of color, activists, immigrants, and other groups that are often already unjustly targeted.”

    The bill also makes the point that the congressional Commission would need to create guidelines and limitations that would ensure there is not a constant state of surveillance of individuals that destroys a reasonable level of anonymity.

    Given the backlash and outcry against the Clearview AI revelations, it’s a safe bet the bill will likely pass.

  • Sen. Jeff Merkley Wants To Make The NSA More Transparent

    The NSA has become the talk of the town in Washington after The Guardian leaked a number of documents revealing the extent of the agency’s spy programs. President Obama and a number of senators have voiced their support for the program, but others are wanting to inject some transparency into the NSA’s data request process.

    The Hill reports that Sen. Jeff Merkley has introduced a bill that would force the secret FISA courts to declassify its “significant opinions” regarding NSA requests for data under the FISA amendments and PATRIOT Act. The bill is aimed directly at the assumption that the FISA courts use alternate interpretations of the law to bypass the “plain reading of the law passed by Congress.”

    Merkley also says that he wants the opinions out in the open so that the American people can better debate the pros and cons of the NSA spy program:

    “Americans deserve to know how much information about their private communications the government believes it’s allowed to take under the law. There is plenty of room to have this debate without compromising our surveillance sources or methods or tipping our hand to our enemies. We can’t have a serious debate about how much surveillance of Americans’ communications should be permitted without ending secret law.”

    One of the bill’s co-sponsors and outspoken NSA opponent, Sen. Ron Wyden, echoed Merkley:

    “It is impossible for the American people to have an informed public debate about laws that are interpreted, enforced, and adjudicated in complete secrecy. When talking about the laws governing Intelligence operations, the process has little to no transparency. Declassifying FISA Court opinions in a form that does not put sources and methods at risk will give the American people insight into what government officials believe the law allows them to do.”

    Surprisingly enough, the bill has garned quite a bit of bipartisan support. Prominent lawmakers from both parties have signed on as co-sponsors in the hopes that their political clout can move this bill along.

    Some senators aren’t as optimistic about the bill’s chances, however, with Sen. Dick Durbin in particular saying that the bill is “going to be ill-fated.” What he means is that there’s very little chance the White House will support the bill. President Obama has voiced his support for the secret FISA courts, secret NSA spying and the collecting of phone records ever since the programs were leaked to the public. His justification is that “you can’t have 100 percent security, and also then have 100 percent security.”

    If the bill can’t get through Congress, what other options for transparency do we have? Well, as the old saying goes, there’s more than one way to skin a cat. In fact, Google and Facebook are now both lobbying the government to let them be more transparent about requests for data. Google already publishes the number of national security requests it receives, but it now wants to publish more.

    It’s hard to say what will happen in the end, but the debate over how much the NSA can keep secret will rage on for months. That can only be a good thing.