Washington puts face recognition under conditions
On 31 March 2020 the Governor of Washington approved SB 6280, in force from 1 July 2021: state and local agencies may use face recognition only after a public accountability report, decisions with legal effects must be reviewed by a person, and ongoing surveillance and real-time identification require a warrant.
Why it matters
The state law does not ban face recognition for government but puts it under a procedure: a report, community consultation, human review, and independent tests of accuracy across groups of people.
Section 3: a report before procurement or use, including the false match rate and the impact on protected subpopulations; at least three community meetings; publication 90 days before use; an update every two years. Section 4: meaningful human review of decisions on lending, housing, insurance, education, criminal justice, employment or health care - the phrase 'legal effects or similarly significant effects' is word for word that of GDPR Article 22. Section 6: the provider must offer an interface for independent tests of differences by race, skin tone, ethnicity, gender, age or disability and remedy what is found within 90 days. Section 11: no ongoing surveillance without a warrant, exigent circumstances or a court order concerning missing or deceased persons; a result may not be the sole basis for probable cause; searching by sketch is forbidden. The Governor vetoed section 10 on a task force because it was unfunded. The law does not apply to private companies.