WSJ Article: Worries about Facial Recognition
Business Groups Push Back Against Proposed Facial-Recognition Bans

'Moratorium on the use of facial recognition technology would be
premature and have unintended consequences’

The corporate sector is working to influence how facial-recognition tools are regulated, spooked by local bans on government agencies’ use of the technology and lawmakers’ proposals for nationwide restrictions.

The issue is a talking point among Democratic presidential candidates. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) has called for a nationwide ban on police use of facial recognition. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) and Sen. Kamala Harris (D., Calif.) have both called for regulations on facial-recognition technology as part of their criminal-justice platforms.

Also worrying for corporations is a bill that Sen. Roy Blunt (R., Mo.) and Sen. Brian Schatz (D., Hawaii) introduced in March. The Commercial Facial Recognition Privacy Act would limit companies’ ability to share facial-recognition data and would prohibit the use of the technology unless a business obtains consent from the people it is used on and provides notice and documentation explaining how the technology works. The bill hasn’t made it to a committee vote.

Nine industry groups—including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Security Industry Association and the American Association of Airport Executives—sent a letter dated Oct. 16 to more than a dozen House and Senate lawmakers urging them not to support strict limits on the use of facial-recognition technology.

“[W]e are concerned that a moratorium on the use of facial recognition technology would be premature and have unintended consequences not only for innovation, safety, and security but for the continued improvement of the technology’s accuracy and effectiveness,” the letter said.

Retailers, airports, stadiums and other businesses have already started rolling out facial-recognition tools to improve security and speed up customer check-ins.

“We’re not opposed to regulation, but we oppose a ban,” said Tim Day, senior vice president of the Chamber of Commerce’s Technology Engagement Center. “There should be guardrails in place to allow the technology to move forward in a smart way.”

The Chamber has convened a facial-recognition working group of about 40 companies from sectors including retail and transportation. The group plans to release model legislation for facial recognition by year-end and to lobby lawmakers to draft and vote for laws that are in line with those guidelines, Mr. Day said.

San Francisco; Oakland, Calif.; and Somerville, Mass., have passed laws banning government agencies from using the technology.

California has prohibited facial-recognition software in police body cameras: Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, signed the bill into law this month. The legislation, which becomes effective in January and expires after three years, doesn’t apply to the private sector.

Some companies, meanwhile, are pointing to the benefits that facial recognition brings.

Miami International Airport, which is affiliated with Airports Council International—North America, has cut passenger screening wait times by up to 80% over the past year, thanks in part to a biometrics-only concourse screening facility, according to a Miami-Dade Aviation Department spokesman.

In January, the airport started using the technology for entry screening on up to 10 international flights a day, and it is testing facial recognition for boarding on “a few daily flights,” the spokesman said. The plan is to eventually expand both programs airport-wide.

Such programs would be hampered if facial recognition bans were passed, Mr. Day said.

In Europe, laws such as the General Data Protection Regulation, which prohibits companies from processing facial-recognition data unless certain circumstances apply, have slowed and in some cases halted the rollout of the technology, said Heikki Koski, chief digital officer at Finavia, the state-owned operator of 21 Finnish airports.

Helsinki Airport is undergoing a €1 billion ($1.11 billion) expansion set to be completed in 2022, and it is considering using facial recognition in new check-in and security facilities, Mr. Koski said. But aviation officials haven’t decided whether to proceed because of the challenges of complying with strict data-privacy laws.

Under the GDPR, organizations can be fined up to €20 million or 4% of global annual revenue, whichever is larger. In August, the Swedish Data Protection Authority fined a municipality about €20,000 for conducting a facial-recognition pilot to keep track of students’ school attendance.

The Swedish authority found that the pilot violated the GDPR. The school failed to perform an adequate impact assessment and consult with Swedish privacy authorities before processing biometric data, it said. Consent from the students wasn’t valid, it added, because of the “clear imbalance” between the students and the school.

“There are many obstacles to solve before we will see widespread implementation here,” Mr. Koski said.

Article originally published on wsj.com