Hawaii and Missouri Senators Brian Schatz and Roy Blunt introduced on Thursday, a new bill designed to offer legislative oversight on the commercial use of Facial Recognition (FR) technology.
The bill, titled the ‘Commercial Facial Recognition Privacy Act’, would require companies to notify consumers any time FR is being used, and proposes limiting companies from freely sharing the data gathered from the use of FR with third-parties without explicit consent from the consumer.
“This bill increases transparency and consumer choice by requiring individuals to give informed consent before commercial entities can collect and share data gathered through this rapidly developing FR technology. This legislation is an important step toward protecting privacy and empower consumers” said Senator Blunt.
Tech giant Microsoft has also endorsed the bipartisan bill, which is in line with the firm’s own views about the regulated use of FR technology, following their own open call for FR regulation in December of 2018.
This new bill put forward by the Senators does not include some of the same provisions around the use of FR that Microsoft called for – specifically the use of FR by law enforcement –, instead focusing on risks specific to the commercial use of the technology.
Of the bill, Senator Schatz stated, “Our faces are our identities. They’re personal. So the responsibility is on companies to ask people for their permission before they track and analyze their faces.”
Where the bill goes from here remains to be seen, but it does highlight the fact that FR technology is an area of intense interest at the moment, both to tech firms – as Microsoft as well as Amazon have called for regulation – and regulatory bodies alike, who are perhaps seeking to shape future legislation before it is written into laws.
