[bnjemian]

Need to look into how this turned out – I've sent letters to Merkley and Wyden over the years about privacy concerns relating to facial recognition and similarly invasive technologies. We need more regulation in this space.

That said, the TSA is in some respects the lesser concern. Don't get me wrong, the TSA not having free rein with facial and biometric technologies is a good thing. But when companies like Clearview AI (https://www.clearview.ai) sell their facial recognition technologies to local police departments – technologies that were built on illegally obtained data and have a history of substantial racial bias – we have bigger issues. It's opaque, unregulated, invites a wellspring of social injustice, and doesn't past muster under any ELSI framework.

Government regulating government is important. But we, as a society, need to stop giving private companies like Clearview AI a pass on harmful, exploitative behavior – especially when they're run by founders like Hoan Ton-That who offer post-hoc rationalizations that amount to (and I'm paraphrasing here) 'Well, if we hadn't done it, someone else would have, so why not us?'

We need a bigger bill that enshrines and elevates privacy for the modern world.

[Simulacra]

I think facial recognition is a good vehicle for those bills. For example, it should be illegal for a business to use facial recognition for decisions about pricing. I think that's a no-brainer. Put that together with other protections for facial recognition and I think it will leave the station.