Bans, bills and moratoria

Each community is unique, but that doesn't mean you have to recreate the wheel. Several cities, towns, and even states have or are actively considering legislation to put the brakes on government use of face surveillance. Along with our model bill, this existing legislation may help inform the dialog in your area and help you develop the policy that is best for your community.

Bans

Federal Bills

Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act (S.2052/H.R.3907)

Moratoria

State of California moratorium on the use of face surveillance with police body cameras (AB 1215).

This list is not comprehensive. Please email unlisted bills to organizing@eff.org.

Related Updates

Deeplinks Blog by Emma Leeds Armstrong | October 15, 2024

Civil Rights Commission Pans Face Recognition Technology

In its recent report, Civil Rights Implications of Face Recognition Technology (FRT), the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights identified serious problems with the federal government’s use of face recognition technology, and in doing so recognized EFF’s expertise on this issue. The Commission focused its investigation on the Department of...

Deeplinks Blog by Svea Windwehr | October 7, 2024

Germany Rushes to Expand Biometric Surveillance

Germany is a leader in privacy and data protection, with many Germans being particularly sensitive to the processing of their personal data – owing to the country’s totalitarian history and the role of surveillance in both Nazi Germany and East Germany.

Deeplinks Blog by Hayley Tsukayama | August 8, 2024

Weak "Guardrails" on Police Face Recognition Use Make Things Worse

Police use of face recognition technology (FRT) poses a particularly massive risk to our civil liberties, particularly for Black men and women and other marginalized communities. That's why EFF supports a ban on government FRT use. Half-measures aren't up to the task.However, even as half-measures go, California's legislature is...

Deeplinks Blog by Tori Noble | July 15, 2024

Detroit Takes Important Step in Curbing the Harms of Face Recognition Technology

In a first-of-its-kind agreement, the Detroit Police Department recently agreed to adopt strict limits on its officers’ use of face recognition technology as part of a settlement in a lawsuit brought by a victim of this faulty technology. Robert Williams, a Black resident of a Detroit suburb, filed...

Deeplinks Blog by Hannah Zhao | April 12, 2024

EFF Submits Comments on FRT to Commission on Civil Rights

Our faces are often exposed and, unlike passwords or pin numbers, cannot be remade. Governments and businesses, often working in partnership, are increasingly using our faces to track our whereabouts, activities, and associations. This is why EFF recently submitted comments to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, which is preparing...

Deeplinks Blog by Josh Richman | March 26, 2024

Podcast Episode: About Face (Recognition)

Is your face truly your own, or is it a commodity to be sold, a weapon to be used against you? A company called Clearview AI has scraped the internet to gather (without consent) 30 billion images to support a tool that lets users identify people by picture alone. Though...

Deeplinks Blog by Paige Collings | December 24, 2023

Corporate Spy Tech and Inequality: 2023 Year in Review

Our personal data and the ways private companies harvest and monetize it plays an increasingly powerful role in modern life. Throughout 2023, corporations have continued to collect our personal data, sell it to governments, use it to reach inferences about us, and exacerbate existing structural inequalities across society. EFF is...

Deeplinks Blog by Hayley Tsukayama | December 20, 2023

FTC’s Rite Aid Ruling Rightly Renews Scrutiny of Face Recognition

The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday announced action against the pharmacy chain Rite Aid for its use of face recognition technology in hundreds of stores. The regulator found that Rite Aid deployed a massive, error-riddled surveillance program, chose vendors that could not properly safeguard the personal data the chain...

Deeplinks Blog by Dave Maass, Veridiana Alimonti | October 3, 2023

The State of Chihuahua Is Building a 20-Story Tower in Ciudad Juarez to Surveil 13 Cities–and Texas Will Also Be Watching

Chihuahua state officials and a notorious Mexican security contractor broke ground last summer on the Torre Centinela (Sentinel Tower), an ominous, 20-story high-rise in downtown Ciudad Juarez that will serve as the central node of a new AI-enhanced surveillance regime. With tentacles reaching into 13 Mexican cities and a data...

Deeplinks Blog by Beryl Lipton, Matthew Guariglia | October 3, 2023

GAO Report Shows the Government Uses Face Recognition with No Accountability, Transparency, or Training

Federal agents are using face recognition software without training, policies, or oversight, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The government watchdog issued yet another report this month about the dangerously inadequate and nonexistent rules for how federal agencies use face recognition, underlining what we’ve already known: the government...

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