New York City Biometric Scanning Ban Wins Council Majority

A New York City bill that would bar businesses open to the public from scanning customers’ faces and other biometric features has secured a majority of the City Council and the backing of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration.

Introduction 213, sponsored by Council Member Shahana Hanif of Brooklyn, would prohibit sports arenas, concert venues, stores and other public-facing businesses from using biometric recognition to identify or verify customers. The measure covers face, iris, voice, fingerprint and gait scans, bars selling or sharing the resulting data with third parties, and would let customers sue, with damages of up to 5,000 dollars for each intentional or reckless violation.

The bill reached 28 co-sponsors, a majority of the 51-member Council, after the Progressive Caucus endorsed it. It still needs the support of Speaker Julie Menin, who has not endorsed it, and Hanif has said she is in conversation with the speaker.

Samuel Levine, the city’s commissioner of consumer and worker protection, announced the administration’s support at a rally outside Madison Square Garden. “No one should have to surrender their personal privacy in order to watch their favorite sports team,” he said. “This kind of mass surveillance opens the door to abuse and discrimination, making consumers in our city uniquely vulnerable.”

The Garden has become the campaign’s reference point because of owner James Dolan’s use of the technology to bar attorneys pursuing litigation against the venue. In one case a mother was turned away from Radio City Music Hall while chaperoning a Girl Scout troop because she worked at a law firm suing the company. An unsigned statement from Madison Square Garden said people have been recognising each other’s faces since the beginning of time, and that it is now simply done electronically.

Advocates also pointed to enforcement precedent, including the Federal Trade Commission’s decision to ban Rite Aid from using facial recognition after the system repeatedly misidentified Black women as shoplifters.

A companion bill from Council Member Pierina Sanchez would further restrict how such data is sold or shared, but does not yet have a Council majority. Elsewhere in the state, Syracuse has already passed a biometric surveillance ban covering public-facing businesses.

Sources: Gothamist, Facilities Dive

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By the ID Tech Editorial Team