IMPORTANT: This petition has been submitted to the city council for the hearing on Sept 9. You are welcome to still sign it, but if you would like your voice to be heard in the vote to ban facial recognition from Portland, please submit official testimony to the city here.

Two bills to ban facial recognition in Portland, OR are coming up for a vote on September 9. One is to ban government use by police and other government agencies, the other is to ban the use by businesses in public places. Companies including Kohl's, Walmart, Wells Fargo, and local Portland gas stations have already used facial recognition.

If both bills pass, Portland will have the best protection against facial recognition of any city in the nation. PDX will set a new national standard. This petition and all signatures will be delivered to the City Council and Mayor Wheeler in advance of the hearing and vote.

Read the petition text to learn more about why facial recognition is so horrible.

PETITION TEXT

I am opposed to the use of Facial Recognition technology in Portland, OR by both government officials, including police, and by private corporations who might seek to profit off of violating my privacy. We need a full ban on facial recognition in Portland with no exceptions.

Facial recognition is racist. Police use it in Detroit, where they misidentify and jail Black men who look nothing like the photos the facial recognition system matched them to. In fact, according to a federal study, facial recognition is up to 100 times more likely to misidentify people of color. But even if the systems were perfect, facial recognition would still be racist because it fuels a racist criminal justice system. Facial recognition has also been used by police to identify and punish protesters.

Facial recognition is a violation of my right to privacy. I do not want to live in a world where I am constantly being watched. I do not want companies or the government gathering data on my appearance, habits, and routines that they could use to target me, or that could be vulnerable to hackers or stalkers. I cannot change my face or my life like I can change a credit card number.

Furthermore, I do not want companies to collect facial recognition data that cops or ICE use to target vulnerable groups such as immigrants, protesters, and journalists.

I urge you to vote to ban all corporate and government uses of facial recognition from Portland entirely. This technology is a danger to us all and an existential threat to our freedom.

Thank you for standing up for the rights of your constituents.