Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ‏joins chorus of facial recognition critics

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez knows what’s coming down the surveillance pike, and she’s raising the alarm. 

The Representative from New York on Saturday highlighted the growing problem of facial recognition tech, and called out its associated ills of bias and abuse. She joins a growing chorus of technologists, activists, and elected officials who see the technology for the civil liberties threat that it is. 

“We have started to sound the alarm on the way facial recognition technology is expanding in concerning [ways],” tweeted the Congresswoman. “From the FBI to ICE to Amazon, the bar for consent and civil liberties protection is repeatedly violated, and on top of it all has a disproportionate racial impact, too.”

Ocasio-Cortez followed up that warning with a video explaining how facial-recognition tech “can make racial injustices worse.”

She is not alone in her concern. Both San Francisco and Somerville, Mass., recently moved to ban the tech in varying capacities, and just this past May Republican Representative Jim Jordan suggested pausing law enforcement’s use of facial-recognition tech altogether. 

Let’s hope Ocasio-Cortez can keep the privacy ball rolling.