Want a good international example of political scrambling for a change? Just take a look at this recent case of the city of San franciscoin California (United States) information is from the WIRED.
Last May, city supervisors approved a total ban of devices with face recognition technologies to your public servers. The idea behind the new law would be to avoid the use of espionage and surveillance technologies, as well as to curb the misuse of these resources by police forces, but supervisors did not think of a rather troublesome side effect: overnight thousands of city ​​officials were barred from using their iPhones (or other face-reading smartphones).
To correct the problem, supervisors had to pass an emergency new law, allowing the use of certain face-recognition devices as long as other features of these devices are considered "critical" and no viable alternatives are available. But there is a detail: the city's public servers may legally use their iPhones again, but at the can use Face ID yes, they will need to enter the password every time they unlock their phones.
The case of San Francisco, however, is not unique: the cities of Oakland (also in California) and Somerville (in Massachusetts) have adopted similar laws, and are considering ways not to ban the use of iPhones or other recent smartphones. Other places like the city of Brookline (also in Massachusetts), banned the use of facial recognition devices, but exclude personal devices from the ban.
The American Union for Civil Liberties (American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU), the centennial institution that fights for US citizens' civil rights, said it would advise municipalities on the construction of legislation involving facial recognition technologies. This is important, as these laws are often created without full knowledge and end up harming the citizens they intended to protect. Let's hope that doesn't happen.
via 9to5Mac
