The collection of someone’s unique physiological traits, like facial recognition or fingerprints, would be banned in Syracuse under a measure being considered by common councilors. Similar measures regulating biometrics are being considered at the state and county levels
The issue sparked privacy concerns earlier this year when a Wegmans in New York City used facial recognition on shoppers. But the kind of data a business or government can collect about you goes much further.
“Gait pattern recognition, how you walk, how you move, the things that you do, the way that your voice sounds, potentially DNA, retina and iris scans, fingerprints," Syracuse Common Councilor Corey Williams told colleagues at a recent meeting.
He said there are strict limits on what the city’s police cameras can capture and how that information is used. But, there are more unknowns with the private sector.
“When we talk about businesses, we have no insight into what they're doing, what their protections are. the capture of this data leaves them vulnerable to hacking attempts," Williams said. "And if your biometric indicators are leaked or stolen, you can never change the way your face looks.”
Williams said middle class white men are typically recognized at a high rate, while women and people of color are identified at much lower rates. Resolution co-sponsor Jimmy Monto said this leads to inaccuracies.
“Suddenly they're misidentifying somebody that was never arrested, never a criminal, has never had police interaction, but because of the way that person either walks, talks, whatever they're doing, it misidentifies them," he said. "Police show up at someone's door and that person was never in that store.”
The measure is still in committee and is modeled after a state bill introduced by Senator Rachel May.
On the county level, legislators are considering a law requiring businesses to notify customers that they’re using biometric technology but not banning it outright.
