New York City council members are moving to regulate the use of facial-recognition software by landlords and business owners.After legislation regulating the technology at the state level failed to gain traction, the City Council hosted a hearing on Monday weighing a package of bills that would better track the use of facial-recognition systems.The package of bills, as reported by the Daily News, would require businesses to notify customers when they're being subjected to facial-recognition technology, force property owners to register with the city when they use biometric scanning technology and require landlords to provide regular keys even if they are also using facial recognition.”I would caution legislators to tread carefully rather than going too far,” City Councilman Ritchie Torres, who has introduced a bill that would require business owners to notify customers if facial recognition tools are in use, told CQ Roll Call. “There are legitimate concerns but we should not allow those concerns to become a massive failure of legislative overreaction.”Torres, a Democrat who represents parts of the Bronx and is running for the congressional seat currently held by the retiring Rep. Jose E. Serrano, says “it could be the case that facial recognition technology has real utility,” but not without standards for privacy and transparency.
New York City mulls regulation of facial recognition tech
