TESTIMONY
Nina Loshkajian, Staff Attorney at Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, on urging the NYC Council to ban biometric surveillance in public accommodations and by landlords
2:11:56
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3 min
Nina Loshkajian from the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project urges the NYC Council to pass legislation banning facial recognition and other biometric tracking tools in public places and residential buildings.
- She argues these technologies are biased, error-prone, and harmful to marginalized communities.
- She says allowing businesses and landlords to use facial recognition is discriminatory, akin to allowing discrimination based on race.
- She highlights cases where facial recognition led to wrongful evictions in public housing due to errors.
- She calls for a private right of action provision to allow tenants to hold landlords accountable.
Nina Loshkajian
2:11:56
Hi.
2:11:57
Thank you.
2:11:58
Good afternoon.
2:11:59
Chegg Gutierrez, members of the committee on techno I appreciate the opportunity to testify today on the harms of biometric surveillance.
2:12:08
My name is Nina Oshkodian, and I am a staff at hear me at the surveillance technology.
2:12:12
I'm oversight project.
2:12:14
No worries.
2:12:16
And I'm here to urge the council to pass intros to 17 in 425, banning public accommodations and landlords respectively from using facial recognition and other creepy biometric tracking tools.
2:12:30
Facial recognition is biased, error prone, and harmful to marginalized communities.
2:12:36
In our eyes, the legislation in consideration today is largely a mirror of existing civil rights protections.
2:12:44
We don't allow stores and landlords to discriminate on the basis of race, So why do we let them use racist technology?
2:12:52
Simply put, these systems have no place in New York City Homes And New York City Businesses.
2:12:57
These measures are an indispensable safeguard, but we also implore the council to go farther and introduce legislation banning law enforcement and government use of biometric technology.
2:13:09
Even if the algorithms could be improved, biometric tracking would remain just as discriminatory because of the ways The creepy stocking tools are plugged into discriminatory policing, housing, and commercial practices.
2:13:25
Bipolar tenants and shoppers will not be give given the same benefit of the doubt as white tenants and shoppers when with the facial recognition error.
2:13:33
And I also wanted to flag, so I believe it was council member Paladino who expressed concerns about coops.
2:13:40
It's important to flag that intro 425 only applies to owners of multiple dwellings spanning are trying to identify tenants.
2:13:48
So I don't think that's actually this bill would address coopboard.
2:13:53
This is about renters in particular.
2:13:56
But back to places of public accommodation, New Yorkers should not be forced to accept constant tracking as part of simple activities like buying groceries or taking their kids to a baseball game.
2:14:07
Stores' biased facial recognition systems will exclude black and dark skinned people due to incredibly common mismatches.
2:14:13
I think council member Henif was right earlier to flag the Rite Aid example.
2:14:17
The FTC saw how dangerous it is when stores use this technology and That is why Rite Aid is now banned from using it for 5 years.
2:14:26
It is also a crucially important that these technologies stay out of our homes without legal intervention, the collection of biometric data, will affect not just residents, but guests they have over.
2:14:40
And in particular, black, brown, Asian, and gender nonconforming guests will be barred from visiting their friends.
2:14:46
Due to mismatches as well.
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In New York City public housing, facial recognition use has already led to residents being evicted for minor violations of policy.
2:14:56
This will contribute to the city's massive eviction crisis.
2:14:59
Vendors of this technology have been clear about their intentions.
2:15:03
They have stated that they would like to find loopholes to be able to charge tenants more on rent using this technology, and I'll wrap up shortly.
2:15:11
Apologies.
2:15:12
We do encourage the council to consider one important addition to the bill banning this technology in residences, which is a strong private rate of action.
2:15:22
To make sure that tenants have a way to hold their landlords accountable.
2:15:26
And as I mentioned, we also encourage the council to consider a ban on government use and law enforcement use.
2:15:32
Thank you so much for your attention to these issues.
