The City of Oakland, California, has once again raised the bar on community control of police surveillance. Last week, Oakland’s City Council voted unanimously to strengthen the city’s already groundbreaking Surveillance and Community Safety Ordinance. The latest amendment, which immediately… Read More ›
Tag Archive for ‘Biometrics’
Why EFF Doesn’t Support Bans On Private Use of Face Recognition
Government and private use of face recognition technology each present a wealth of concerns. Privacy, safety, and amplification of carceral bias are just some of the reasons why we must ban government use. But what about private use? It also can… Read More ›
ExamSoft Flags One-Third of California Bar Exam Test Takers for Cheating
One of EFF’s chief concerns about exam proctoring software—in addition to the fact that it subjects students to excessive surveillance—is the risk that it will incorrectly flag students for cheating, called “false positives.” This can be due either to the… Read More ›
Clearview’s Faceprinting is Not Sheltered from Biometric Privacy Litigation by the First Amendment
Clearview AI extracts faceprints from billions of people, without their consent, and uses these faceprints to offer a service to law enforcement agencies seeking to identify suspects in photos. Following an exposé by the New York Times this past January,… Read More ›
No Police Body Cams Without Strict Safeguards
EFF opposes police Body Worn Cameras (BWCs), unless they come with strict safeguards to ensure they actually promote officer accountability without surveilling the public. Police already have too many surveillance technologies, and deploy them all too frequently against people of… Read More ›
EFF Files Comment Opposing the Department of Homeland Security's Massive Expansion of Biometric Surveillance
EFF, joined by several leading civil liberties and immigrant rights organizations, recently filed a comment calling on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to withdraw a proposed rule that would exponentially expand biometrics collection from both U.S. citizens and noncitizens… Read More ›
EFF Tells California Supreme Court Not to Require ExamSoft for Bar Exam
This week, EFF sent a letter (pdf link) to the Supreme Court of California objecting to the required use of the proctoring tool ExamSoft for the October 2020 California Bar Exam. Test takers should not be forced to give their… Read More ›
If Privacy Dies in VR, It Dies in Real Life
If you aren’t an enthusiast, chances are you haven’t used a Virtual Reality (VR) or Augmented Reality (AR) headset. The hype around this technology, however, is nearly inescapable. We’re not just talking about dancing with lightsabers; there’s been a lot… Read More ›
Sen. Merkley Leads on Biometric Privacy
Businesses across the world are harvesting and monetizing our biometrics without our knowledge or consent. For example, Clearview AI extracted faceprints from three billion people, and now it sells face-matching services to police departments. Likewise, retail stores use face surveillance… Read More ›
California: Stand Up to Face Surveillance
EFF has joined a broad coalition of civil liberties, civil rights, and labor advocates to oppose A.B. 2261, which threatens to normalize the increased use of face surveillance of Californians where they live and work. Our allies include the ACLU… Read More ›