NY HALTS SCHOOL’S PLANS TO USE FACIAL RECOGNITION TECH

The New York State Education Department on Thursday instructed a school district to delay its plans to implement the use of facial recognition technology.

“We have made it clear, the Department has not approved the testing of the system planned for next week and we told the District not to commence the testing of the technology until we receive information that assures us that student information will be properly protected,” a spokesperson for the department told The Hill.

The New York Education Department spokesperson said the agency is in the process of reviewing the school district’s facial recognition system and has not found sufficient protections for students’ privacy or data.

First in the nation: Lockport City School District would have been the first school district in the country to use the new technology. It had planned to being testing its Aegis system on Monday, with plans to have it broadly operational by Sept. 1. It intended to use the technology to identify if guns or flagged persons, such as sex offenders, entered school grounds.

Critics are pushing back: The program’s implementation drew backlash from critics who point to studies of inaccuracies in facial recognition technology, especially for women and people of color.

The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) last year sent a letter to the New York State Department of Education that asked officials to halt the project. NYCLU has asked the state legislature to do the same, according to the Journal.

State Assembly Member Monica Wallace (D) has introduced a bill that would effectively force Lockport to stop using the system.