TESTIMONY
Daniel Schwartz, Representative of the New York Civil Liberties Union, on the Invasive Nature and Civil Liberty Implications of Biometric Surveillance Technologies
3:41:07
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162 sec
Daniel Schwartz testifies against the use of biometric surveillance technologies on behalf of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
- He argues that biometric surveillance tools enable invasive tracking and are highly flawed and racially biased.
- He states that the widespread use of these technologies threatens civil liberties like privacy, freedom of speech, and equal treatment.
- Schwartz calls for prohibitions on biometric surveillance use by law enforcement, in housing, and in areas where fundamental rights are at stake.
- He supports legislation to restrict biometric surveillance in public accommodations and by private landlords.
- Schwartz emphasizes the importance of living free from pervasive surveillance that restricts freedoms.
Daniel Schwartz
3:41:07
My name is Daniel Schwartz, and I'm testifying on behalf of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
3:41:11
We thank the committee and council members for holding the hearing and for the opportunity to provide testimony today.
3:41:17
Biometric surveillance tools enable and amplify the invasive tracking of who we are, where we go, and who we meet.
3:41:23
They're also highly flawed and racially biased and I'm happy to go more in-depth on that after my oral testimony.
3:41:29
The widespread use of these technologies presents a clear danger to all New Yorkers civil liberties and threatens erode our fundamental rights to privacy, protests, and equal treatment under the law.
3:41:39
The council must ensure New Yorkers are not surveilled.
3:41:42
Targeted, discriminated against, and criminalize on the basis of invasive, flawed, and biased technology.
3:41:48
To this end, we call for prohibitions on biometric surveillance in areas of severe in power in balance, including its use by law enforcement or other government agencies in housing and in other areas where our fundamental rights are at stake or were informed consent cannot be given.
3:42:05
The NYCLU supports intro 217 to prohibit places of public accommodations from using biometric surveillance and require written consent for any collection of biometric data.
3:42:15
The face recognition deployment by MSG to target staff from law firms in litigation with MSG points to our value in use cases where it will be impossible to move and associate freely.
3:42:25
And the technology's racial as well as gender bias, risks disproportionately impacting women and people of color, such as in the misidentification of a black teenager that barred her from entering an ice skating rink, or that of a woman in the UK just recently was misidentified as a shop lifter and subsequently backsearched, asked to leave the store and banned from all stores using the same vendor.
3:42:47
Raising related harms, the Federal Trade Commission, as we heard, successfully, brought charges against a large retailer Rite Aid, which is now banned from using facial recognition mission after similarly, falsely identifying consumers as shop leaders.
3:42:59
For these reasons, we support biometric surveillance in places of public accommodation.
3:43:04
To ensure that the legislation fully meets its goals, we make detailed recommendations in our written testimony.
3:43:11
Intro 42 5 with private landlords from using biometric recognition technology that apply to
Jennifer Gutiérrez
3:43:16
Thank you.
3:43:17
Your time has expired.
3:43:18
Oh, we have we have your testimony, Daniel.
3:43:20
Do you wanna wrap up?
Daniel Schwartz
3:43:21
Yeah.
3:43:21
Just in conclusion, I'd say nobody wants to live in a world where pervasive surveillance identifies them, tracks their movements as associations and impacts which places they can visit, which services they can access with whom they meet or who how to exercise their free speech rights.
3:43:36
NYCLU supports intro 217425, and we urge for this with passage.
3:43:41
For similar reasons, we also support intro 539 to private the sharing of vacation data with third parties.
3:43:48
Thank you.
