Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Government Privacy United States Technology

Senator Introduces Bill Banning Facial Recognition Tech In Public Housing (thehill.com) 47

Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) on Friday introduced a bill banning the use of facial recognition technology in public housing, mirroring legislation proposed in the House in July. The Hill reports: The No Biometric Barriers to Housing Act would block the tech from being installed in housing units that receive funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). "Using facial recognition technology in public housing without fully understanding its flaws and privacy implications seriously harms our most vulnerable communities," Booker, a 2020 presidential candidate, said in a statement. "Facial recognition technology has been repeatedly shown to be incomplete and inaccurate, regularly targeting and misidentifying women and people of color. We need better safeguards and more research before we test this emerging technology on those who live in public housing and risk their privacy, safety, and peace of mind." There is currently no federal law dictating when, how, where or why facial recognition technology can be used.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Senator Introduces Bill Banning Facial Recognition Tech In Public Housing

Comments Filter:
  • What will be found (Score:2, Insightful)

    by AHuxley ( 892839 )
    People who have no right to US supported housing?
    Illegal migrants using fake and sanctuary city ID to get housing?

    People with fake, shared, stolen ID expecting their fake ID to be accepted decades due to sanctuary city politics?
    Criminals using fake, shared, stolen ID protected by sanctuary city politics?
    Facial recognition will slowly find all the criminals and illegal migrants using fake/shared photo ID.
    Criminals doing crime using fake ID are not vulnerable communities.
    Finding criminals and illegal
    • Sure maybe it gets sold that way and that's how it starts, but it sure as shit won't be where it ends. I'm more than happy to let a few criminals go to avoid eroding my own civil liberties.

      Funny for someone with your signature (Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering") to make a post in support of this.
      • by AHuxley ( 892839 )
        Tax payers supporting housing with less crime is not "civil liberties".
        Thats housing for US citizens to prove they need to be supported with.
        Been surrounded by less crime, fewer illegal migrants and other criminals using fake ID might be a positive for all US citizens.
    • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

      People who deserve every right to be protected from predators, these are vulnerable people, they are not the enemy and they are in public housing to protect them and to remove the negative impact of homelessness on the rest of human society.

      Well, upon that basis there is no other choice, it is the way it has to be, they are vulnerable people who are struggling and deserve the protection of the state and not it's abuses.

      So unfortunately, public video monitoring with facial recognition is required in all pu

      • by Anonymous Coward

        > All sorts end up jammed in public housing and

        And most will never leave, nor will their children or parents. Why? Because they the rate of black single motherhood is well over 70% now more than twice that for white or hispanics, and 3 times the rate for Asians. If you pop out babies without a father, no successful man will want to pick up another man's lover and children except to sponge off the fact that you have a home, then abandon you. And you, and your children, and your older relatives who need yo

      • by AHuxley ( 892839 )
        Reduce the crime in the area and some US citizens might get to discover the part about "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness".
        Stop the illegal migrants and their ID fraud used to get low cost housing and that's more housing support for real US citizens in need.
        Less fraud and that's more support money and actual homes for US citizens again.
      • by pnutjam ( 523990 )
        You act like these places aren't already policed an monitored. Educate yourself. [citylab.com]
    • get the CIA to stop meddling in Latin America & Mexico and crashing their economies and governments every few years for the sake of US Corporate interests. Legalize drugs to end the cartels. Bam, book it, done. No more illegal immigration.

      Nobody walks 2000 miles to live in a country that elects a guy like Trump. They're not coming here for us, they're fleeing the violence _we_ caused.
      • by jonwil ( 467024 )

        Ask the Canadian authorities how well legalized weed has been working out for them...
        According to https://www.abc.net.au/news/20... [abc.net.au]
        Canadians are still buying their weed illegally because the illegal stuff is better.

        • Canada is trying to create an entirely new distribution network.

          American states like Colorado and Washington instead encourage existing sellers to become legal.

          These states have been more successful than Canada at separating pot from crime, but even Canada has cut the amount sold by criminals in half.

          Some legalization policies are better than others, but all are way better than criminalization.

      • Or, and I just offer his as a possibility ... they are just like every other human alive, and they think it will benefit them.

        We tend to romanticize the oppressed as somehow morally superior people, but the reality is that they are just live everyone else ... self-centered and willing to pursue something that benefits them in some way. Many of them aren’t even oppressed, apart from living in a poorer country than their neighbors.

    • This is just an election gimmick. Cory Booker is running in the low single digits in the polls. People are talking about Warren, Sanders and Biden, so Cory Booker needs to say something just to get himself into the limelight. Kinda sorta like O'Rourke saying that he wants to take everyone's guns away and tax their churches.

      But I don't think that Cory Booker or anyone else should be making decisions about security in residential buildings. Let the residents decide if they want surveillance cameras and f

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Housing is a human right. It should not require a person to give up their privacy to this extent. Sure, check their ID when applying, but facial recognition to track their comings and goings? No, that can't be justified.

      I've noticed that you often cite crime as a reason for supporting draconian, oppressive measures. If you live in constant pearl-clutching fear you can't have freedom.

      • by AHuxley ( 892839 )
        Re "Housing is a human right."
        For US citizens who can prove to the US gov that they need that supported housing.
        Re "It should not require a person to give up their privacy to this extent."
        Should poor people have to accept crime so criminals and illegal migrants get their "privacy"?
        Re "check their ID when applying, but facial recognition to track their comings and goings?"
        Criminals and illegal migrants will often attempt to use fake, stolen, shared ID for the "applying" part.
        A simple gov ID is not goin
        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          That's not how human rights work. You have them merely by being a human, citizenship is irrelevant.

          • by AHuxley ( 892839 )
            Re 'You have them merely by being a human, citizenship is irrelevant."
            Citizenship is what grants US citizens access to what their gov provides for them.
            Not to the random citizens of other nations wondering around the USA.
            Citizenship grants US citizens to lots of different gov support.
            Food, housing, healthcare, education... support for people who did mil service.
            Thats not "free" for random people. US tax payers have to "pay" for all the services the gov offers its own citizens.
            Police use of new and
            • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

              I think you need to go look up the definition of human rights.

            • Citizenship is what grants US citizens access to what their gov provides for them.

              The government provides ENTITLEMENTS, not RIGHTS:

              A right: Something the government can't take away from you.

              An entitlement: Something the government is obligated to give to you.

              Examples of rights: Free speech, freedom of the press, freedom to worship

              Examples of entitlements: Food stamps, social security pensions, veterans benefits.

          • That's not how human rights work. You have them merely by being a human, citizenship is irrelevant.

            Most nations apply "rights" differently for citizens and non-citizens. Here in the US some of the rights are permitted to everyone, and some aren't. The second amendment doesn't apply to foreigners, but the first does (supposedly.) In the UK the right to free speech is (more or less) enjoyed by the citizens, but not others. For example there is a law against seditious speech, which cannot be applied to residents, but can be applied to visitors.

            Human rights are a fiction, and a fantasy. There are only rights

            • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

              The point of human rights is that they are universal. In Europe that is the case, no matter if you are a citizen or not. In fact they do regularly form part of immigration cases brought before the courts.

              If those rights do not apply to non-citizens then they are not being treated as human rights. What you are saying is that the US doesn't have strong human rights protections like Europe does.

              Human rights go beyond governments, they are enforced at international level. Human rights abuses can be justificatio

              • If those rights do not apply to non-citizens then they are not being treated as human rights. What you are saying is that the US doesn't have strong human rights protections like Europe does.

                Get back to us when the UK eliminates their law against seditious speech entirely, or Brexits.

        • by pnutjam ( 523990 )
          Benjamin Franklin once said: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
      • "Housing is a human right."

        It obviously isn't. The number of houseless homeless grows daily. It would be nice if it were but we value bombing brown people for oil much more highly than housing the homeless.

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          In the EU shelter is a human right. It's not always enforced and some people refuse the offer, but it's on the books.

          In the US it's obviously not considered a human right in the legal sense. I was giving my personal opinion.

          • by AHuxley ( 892839 )
            Try South Africa. Lots of nice words about getting gov housing too.
            Its not a "human right". Most gov will try to look after their own citizens with rent payments, support payments, gov housing.
            The next elected, selected, king, junta, cult leader, Communist party can walk back any such past political efforts at providing housing.
      • > Housing is a human right.

        Is it? Especially private housing? Some nations guarantee it in their constitutions, the USA does not. The rights listed in a constitution are not meant to be exhaustive, so let us assume it as a right.

        What kind of housing does this right include? The safety of public housing is a very real problem. In many "housing projects", theft, assault, and other crimes by residents or by gangs who prey on them are extreme and difficult to control. Would facial recognition help with this?

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Since people also have a right to safety it needs to be minimal but safe housing. Some countries like the UK do fail to provide that, but at least there is legal recourse in that case.

      • A human right is something that is NOT, repeat NOT, granted by government. Human rights exist outside government. The Bill of Rights is a restriction on government. Try to remember that.

        Ergo, for something to be a human right means that nobody can deny you that right. It does not mean that you are to be given something for free.
        I have the right to keep and bear arms, so sayeth the 2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. It does not mean that some entity e.g. the government has to provide me with those

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          In Europe you get free stuff because of human rights. The government has an obligation to actively assist you to protect those rights.

          It's the fundamental difference in the idea of freedom between Europe and the US. The US is almost entirely concerned with freedom from interference, where as in Europe you are not considered free if you don't have the opportunity to make something of your life.

          • by AHuxley ( 892839 )
            Thats also the difference in the EU nations.
            What the gov grants the gov can put limits on.
            Free stuff from any gov is created by a level of tax to support that "free" housing.

            What the US is finding is that criminals and illegal migrants are getting access to "free" housing using fake, shared, created ID.
            Thats taking away housing from US citizens who should have been getting that supported housing.
            So CCTV and other ID methods can slowly find out who is using fake ID and getting housing support they shou
            • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

              What the US is finding is that criminals and illegal migrants are getting access to "free" housing using fake, shared, created ID.

              And that's how freedom dies. In your quest for perfect security you end up screwing over everyone and creating a police state. Nothing good ever comes of crack-downs and Orwellian surveillance.

    • The cognitive dissonance between the comment on one hand and the username and signature on the other is truly a breathtaking feat of mental gymnastics.
  • flaws and privacy implications seriously harms our most vulnerable communities

    I can't see, how cameras in public places, where a live policeman can be stationed legally, can harm anyone other than a criminal.

    Much less seriously harm...

    • by ebvwfbw ( 864834 )

      It may end up improving it. If it's getting it wrong then stationing them in those areas would cause a lot of problems for the maker. This stuff is crap, fix it!

      Then of course the problem is - they fixed it.

If you have a procedure with 10 parameters, you probably missed some.

Working...