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A Black girl from Detroit, Lamya, was recently kicked out of a local skating rink after she was misidentified by facial recognition technology. The rink’s system falsely matched her with the photo of someone who had been involved in a fight, even though Lamya had never been to the rink before in her life.

Based on a photo taken by Lamya, the rink’s facial recognition system looks like it is part of a system that checks temperatures as it scans people’s faces. Tech companies have been aggressively marketing products like these to businesses for “COVID-19 safety” with facial recognition built in for “added security.”

Police departments and government agencies have been employing facial recognition to violate the rights of Black and brown people for years. Now the use of this dangerous tool is spreading to local businesses and companies we patronize on a daily basis.

When your kid walks into a business, you shouldn't have to worry that they’ll be targeted with discriminatory technology. We shouldn’t be living in a world where scans of our faces are added to a database and used in a range of terrifying ways, from retailers targeting us with manipulative marketing to cops tracking our participation in protests. Lawmakers must take action now before the spread is totally out of control.

Lawmakers in Portland, Oregon, already passed a ban on facial recognition in “places of public accommodation” (as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act) like restaurants, retail stores, and yes, skating rinks.

Elected officials everywhere need to follow Portland’s lead and enact a ban of facial recognition tech on the local, state, and federal levels.

Sign this petition to local, state, and federal lawmakers, telling them we need a ban on facial recognition in public places:

Petition:

From roller skating rinks to retail stores, businesses’ and corporations’ use of facial recognition technology is violating our privacy and strengthening the racist structures of surveillance and policing that disproportionately harm people of color and other marginalized groups. Everyone should be able to shop, dine, and go about their lives without being subjected to constant surveillance, without having their personal information collected and used against them, and without the threat of being misidentified by inherently racist technology. Portland, Oregon, just banned facial recognition in a wide range of public spaces. It’s time to enact similar bans on the local, state and federal levels.