NYCLU Finds New York Schools Not Sticking to Facial Recognition Ban

A new report from the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) suggests that the state’s Education Department (NYSED) is flagrantly ignoring a 2020 law that bans the use of facial recognition technology in schools. That law was passed in response to a highly-publicized lawsuit that the NYCLU brought against the Lockport City School District after administrators moved forward with plans to install hundreds of surveillance cameras across 10 schools.

The lawsuit was eventually dismissed after the new law made the action redundant. However, the NYCLU is now arguing that there is an enforcement problem, to the extent that New York officials are actively supporting school efforts to purchase facial recognition technology. The organization found that that the New York Smart Schools Review Board has authorized at least 16 grants for schools buying technology from Avigilon, and another two grants for schools procuring technology from Verkada.

The Avigilon portfolio includes multiple iterations of the Avigilon Control Center (ACC), which lists facial recognition based on watch lists and facial analytics as key selling points. Verkada similarly offers People Analytics, a feature that is turned off by default in states like Illinois and Texas that have stricter privacy laws. New York is notably not one of those jurisdictions.

The fact that New York administrators are continuing to provide public funding for systems with biometric capabilities undercuts the current ban, insofar as it provides a degree of tacit support for schools that are interested in surveillance tech. The NYCLU questioned both the accuracy and the efficacy of such systems, suggesting that they could expose children to extreme levels of profiling and bias while at school. In that regard, the organization noted that watchlists are often pulled from mugshot databases that are disproportionately made up of people of color.

The ban on facial recognition tech could be lifted later this summer after the NYSED shares its risk analysis report for the technology. The law was in effect when the grants were approved, and will remain so until the Commissioner of Education declares otherwise. The report was requested as part of the 2020 law.

For its part, the NYCLU noted that there are privacy concerns about the use of biometric tech, especially when it is applied to children. Verkada, in particular, lost massive amounts of customer data during a data breach that also gave hackers direct access to more than 150,000 live camera feeds connected to the company’s systems. The NYCLU is worried that schools could hand over data collected with facial recognition cameras to the police or to immigration authorities.

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July 6, 2022 – by Eric Weiss