London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 29, 2025

Boston Just Banned Its Government From Using Facial Recognition Technology

Boston Just Banned Its Government From Using Facial Recognition Technology

Citing “racial bias in facial surveillance,” the Boston City Council voted unanimously to stop the use of facial recognition by public agencies.
The Boston City Council voted unanimously to ban the city government, including police, from using facial recognition technology on Wednesday, making Boston the largest city on the East Coast to do so.

The law makes it illegal for Boston or city officials to "obtain, retain, possess, access, or use" facial recognition technology. It's also now illegal for the city government to enter into contracts that permit the use of facial recognition technology.

Five other cities in Massachusetts - including Springfield, Cambridge, Northampton, Brookline, and Somerville - have banned the governmental use of facial recognition in the past year. San Francisco and Oakland have passed similar bans.

The ordinance noted that facial recognition technology is “less accurate for African American and [Asian American and Pacific Islander] faces” and that “racial bias in facial surveillance has the potential to harm communities of color who are already facing increased levels of surveillance and harassment."

“I think that there’s a good reason to ban this technology right now - because it’s unreliable - and moving forward, we have to also consider whether just because something is possible, that it’s the right thing to do,” Councillor Liz Breadon said in Wednesday’s meeting. “Surveilling our population at large and doing facial identification is not necessarily the way we want to go in a free society.”

The law still allows Boston police and officials to follow up on any tips from other law enforcement agencies that may have been generated through facial recognition. For instance, if the FBI shared a list of suspects with the Boston Police Department that was generated with the help of facial recognition, the department could use that information.

The ordinance was introduced with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, which has been advocating against facial recognition with its “Press Pause Face Surveillance” campaign, which concentrates on passing citywide restrictions on facial recognition technology.

“To effectively address police abuses and systemic racism, we must address the tools that exacerbate those long-standing crises,” Carol Rose, executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, said in a statement. “Face surveillance supercharges the policing of Black and brown communities, and tramples on everyone’s rights to anonymity and privacy.”

A 2018 ACLU report found that Rekognition, a facial recognition tool that Amazon sells to police, falsely matched 28 members of Congress with people in mugshots. Earlier this month, the company said it would pause selling facial recognition to law enforcement for one year but refused to say how many police departments have used or currently use Rekognition.

BriefCam - a company that helps police analyze surveillance footage and recognize faces - claimed in marketing materials that it helped police investigate the Boston Marathon bombing. It’s unclear what, if any, role the company played in arresting the suspects.

According to documents viewed by BuzzFeed News, businesses and police departments in the Boston metropolitan area have also used Clearview AI, a company that offers facial recognition software powered by more than 3 billion photos taken from social media sites including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. A BuzzFeed News investigation in February revealed that more than 2,200 entities have run searches with Clearview, ranging from federal officials at the Justice Department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to local police departments and private companies including Macy’s and Kohl’s.

Some of those entities are based in the Boston area. For instance, Boston Properties, a real estate company in the city, had run dozens of Clearview searches as of February, based on documents reviewed by BuzzFeed News. The neighboring Cambridge Police Department ran over 100 searches, the Revere Police Department ran more than 70 searches, and the Somerville Police Department ran at least one Clearview scan, according to those documents.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
UK and Vietnam Sign Landmark Migration Deal to Fast-Track Returns of Irregular Arrivals
UK Drug-Pricing Overhaul Essential for Life-Sciences Ambition, Says GSK Chief
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie Temporarily Leave the UK Amid Their Parents’ Royal Fallout
UK Weighs Early End to Oil and Gas Windfall Tax as Reeves Seeks Investment Commitments
UK Retail Inflation Slows as Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since Spring
Next Raises Full-Year Profit Guidance After Strong Third-Quarter Performance
Reform UK’s Lee Anderson Admits to 'Gaming' Benefits System While Advocating Crackdown
United States and South Korea Conclude Major Trade Accord Worth $350 Billion
Hurricane Melissa Strikes Cuba After Devastating Jamaica With Record Winds
Vice President Vance to Headline Turning Point USA Campus Event at Ole Miss
U.S. Targets Maritime Narco-Routes While Border Pressure to Mexico Remains Limited
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
×