Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
As protestors square off against police across the country, California is readying a bill that could expand the state’s use of facial recognition, including for law enforcement purposes.
Introduced as Assembly Bill 2261, the bill would provide a framework by which companies and government agencies could legally engage in facial recognition, provided they give prior notice.
The bill has been moving slowly through the state legislature since February and is being considered by the Assembly Appropriations Committee this week. For supporters, it’s an important privacy measure, heading off the more extreme uses of widely available technology. Ed Chau, the assemblyman who introduced the bill, called it “the long overdue solution to regulate…