San Francisco becomes 1st major city to ban facial recognition technology

A surveillance camera on a San Francisco street.
(Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 8-1 on Tuesday to prohibit the use of facial recognition technology by police and municipal agencies.

The technology is being used across the United States in airports, stadiums, and other places where a large number of people gather, with law enforcement agencies turning to the tech in order to search for suspects. Police in New York City, Las Vegas, Boston, San Diego, Orlando, and Detroit use facial recognition technology, Dave Maass, senior investigative researcher at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told The New York Times; in San Francisco, it's only used at the airport and ports, which are all under federal jurisdiction and exempt from the ban.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.