Boston Lawmakers Vote To Ban Use Of Facial Recognition Technology By The City

Boston is poised to ban its use of facial surveillance technology, becoming the second-largest community in the world to do so.

The city council unanimously voted on Wednesday to ban the use of the technology and prohibit any city official from obtaining facial surveillance by asking for it through third parties.

While the police department isn't using facial recognition technology now, an upgraded version of a video analysis software currently used by the department, called BriefCam, does have facial analysis power.

The American Civil Liberties Union says the largest city to ban facial recognition technology is San Francisco.

"Let's just ensure that we put the policy horse before the technology cart and lead with our values so we don't accidentally wake up someday in a dystopian surveillance state," Crockford said, "because behind the scenes, police departments and technology companies have created an architecture of oppression that is very difficult to dismantle."