Minneapolis City Council committee advances ordinance that would ban facial recognition

Thursday, a Minneapolis City Council committee advanced an ordinance that would ban the use of facial recognition by the city.

The council’s Public Health and Safety Committee voted unanimously to advance the legislation.

The technology has raised concerns by some who worry it could be a dangerous step toward a surveillance state where people’s movements are tracked the moment they leave their homes. The technology uses machine learning algorithms to automatically detect human faces from surveillance cameras, social media and other sources and attempts to match the images with a countywide mug shot database.

The issue is now set to go before the Policy and Government Oversight Committee on Jan. 27.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.