Face Recognition Technology Completely Banned In Portland, USA

Portland, the US state of Oregon, was the first city to make facial recognition technology illegal.

Many cities in the US, such as Oakland, San Francisco, and Boston, previously prohibited government agencies from using facial recognition technology.

Portland, in the state of Oregon, became the first city to completely ban both private and public use of this technology.

"Portlanders should never be afraid of abuse of their privacy rights by governments or a private agency. No one in the city will ever use this technology that has proven to be racially and gender-biased."

Said Ted Wheeler, president of the Portland department, making a statement on the subject

The decision taken by the city council will take effect in two stages. First, facial recognition technology will be banned entirely in city offices, including law enforcement.

The second phase, on the other hand, will come into play as of January next year , and private-owned places that are accessible to the public, such as shops, banks, Airbnb rental, entertainment organizations, restaurants and the like, will be banned from using facial recognition technologies.

Under the newly adopted laws, Portland citizens can sue institutions that use facial recognition technology on themselves.

Face recognition technology has been approved for use in 32 countries in Europe. However, the public reacts to the use of this technology.

France and Sweden recently banned the use of facial recognition in schools. 80 percent of Europeans are not keen to share their facial data with the authorities.

Despite these negative thoughts, the technology is still used in 26 European countries to date.