San Francisco bans facial recognition (2019)
San Francisco became the first US city to ban facial recognition, passing the Surveillance Technology Ordinance. The law required city departments to get Board of Supervisors approval for surveillance technologies.
Set a national precedent; Oakland and Boston followed.
SFPD has found workarounds, including using private cameras and now BriefCam.
BriefCam's biometric tracking may circumvent the ban, testing whether the law's definition of facial recognition covers the technology.
