Today, Larry Sabbath and I watched the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law hearing on facial recognition technology.  The hearing, chaired by Senator Al Franken (D-MN), focused on the use of facial recognition by law enforcement and social media.

Witnesses testifying included representatives from the FBI, the Federal Trade Commission, academia, Facebook and privacy advocates.

Senator Franken attempted to persuade Maneesha Mithal, Associate Director of the FTC's Division of Privacy and Identity Protection to commit the Commission to support "best practices" for industry to require consumer consent prior to collecting facial images.  Director Mithal said that the Commission was developing best practices and would take the suggestion to the Commissioners.

Testifying for the FBI, Jerome Pender, Deputy Assistant Director Information Services Branch Criminal Justice Information Services Division, said the FBI was utilizing facial recognition technology in a database complied from criminal history mug shots of arrested individuals and not from social media.

Jennifer Lynch, of the Electronic Frontier Association advocated limits on the ability to collect facial recognition information. Rob Sherman, Facebook Manager for Private Policy was drilled by the Chairman on why it's so difficult for subscribers to opt-out of the facial recognition feature. Sherman explained that photo recognition photos are only viewable by 'friends' and they do not release facial recognition information to any third parties including law enforcement.

300 million photos are alleged to be uploaded via the internet on a daily basis.

The NCISS Legislative Committee will continue to monitor developments on this issue to assure that no unintended consequences affect private investigators and security companies.

Keeping the profession informed,

Jimmie Mesis

Legislative Chairman

NCISS

7501 Sparrows Point Boulevard

Baltimore, Maryland 21219-1927

T-(800) 445-8408  F-(410) 388-9746

jim@nciss.org

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