Albert Fox Cahn is the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project’s ( S.T.O.P.’s) founder and executive director, and he is also a fellow at Yale Law School’s Information Society Project, Ashoka, N.Y.U Law School’s Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy, and the Day One Project. As a lawyer, technologist, writer, and interfaith activist, Mr. Cahn began S.T.O.P. in the belief that emerging surveillance technologies pose an unprecedented threat to civil rights and the promise of a free society.
Law enforcement is tapping the tech for low-level crimes like shoplifting, because there are no limits. But the tool often makes errors.
Even though the NYPD claims facial recognition is only used for serious crimes, the numbers tell a different story. As facial recognition continues to grow, it's being routinely deployed for everything from shoplifting to graffiti.