Giving Compass' Take:

· Although facial recognition technology has come a long way, Jason Plautz explains that it is still misidentifying people of color almost 100 times more than white faces. 

· How can this technology be improved to better recognize people of color? Why is this important? 

· Check out this article about concerns about facial recognition tech.

The findings are sure to throw more momentum behind efforts to regulate or restrict the growing use of facial recognition technology by governments and private businesses, especially in law enforcement.

More police departments have explored the use of the technology for crowd control or to identify suspects. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has run over 390,000 facial recognition searches since 2011, according to The Washington Post. The Department of Homeland Security has also it could use facial recognition at the border and for travelers, although it dropped plans this month to seek permission to use the technology to scan travelers coming in and out of the country.

Concerned about the potential civil rights implications, cities like San Francisco, Oakland, CA and Somerville, MA passed bans on government use of the software. Portland, OR is weighing a ban that would extend to private businesses as well. But those restrictions might prove more difficult to enforce than previously thought.

San Francisco is poised to amend its restriction on facial recognition technology, permitting city employees to use devices like Apple products that already have facial recognition built in as an unlocking feature.

Read the full article about facial recognition technology by Jason Plautz at Smart Cities Dive.