We’ve been hard at work trying to ban facial recognition and other biometric surveillance in New York City’s residential buildings and places of public accommodation. Intros 425 and 217 are almost at the finish line, but if you’re a New York City resident, we need your help to pass these bills!  You can help us by emailing or calling City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and asking her to call the bills for a vote.

  • Phone number: 212-482-6731

    Phone Script:

    Hi, my name is [NAME], and I live in [NEIGHBORHOOD] in [BOROUGH]. I am calling to ask Speaker Adams to please call a vote on Intros 217-2024 and 425-2024, banning facial recognition and biometric surveillance in places of public accommodation and residential buildings. As a New Yorker, I am concerned about expanding facial recognition and other biometric surveillance in our city. These much-needed pieces of legislation would protect New Yorkers from this racially biased and invasive technology. Thank you for your work and for all you do on the Council.

  • Email: SpeakerAdams@council.nyc.gov

    Email Script:

    Dear Speaker Adams,

    Thank you for scheduling a hearing on intros 217 and 425, banning facial recognition and other biometric surveillance in places of public accommodation and by landlords.

    I am writing to urge you to call a vote on these two important pieces of legislation. As a New Yorker, I am concerned about expanding facial recognition and biometric surveillance in our city. 

    Facial recognition discriminates against Black, Latinx, non-binary, and transgender New Yorkers. Many algorithms are up to 100-times more error-prone when deployed against young Black women compared to middle-aged white males. Developers also frequently train their systems without including transgender and non-binary individuals, rendering their gender identity invisible to the algorithm, and making them susceptible to misidentification and wrongful arrest. 

    Additionally, allowing businesses and landlords to collect biometric information makes them an even more lucrative target for identity thieves and hackers. Unlike other personal identifiers like a social security number, biometric identifiers are almost impossible to change. When a hacker acquires another person’s biometric data, it puts them at risk for identity theft for the rest of their lives.

    Beyond concerns of bias in the technology itself, biometric surveillance in practice also disproportionately targets vulnerable communities. Police have used facial recognition to identify Black Lives Matter protestors, and ICE has used it to track immigrant families. Interstate abortion seekers and individuals seeking gender-affirming care are also at risk of having a match put them at risk of prosecution, simply because they went to buy groceries during their trip. 

    These two bills are essential to protect New Yorkers from discriminatory over-policing. We are grateful for all your work to protect vulnerable New Yorkers, and we urge you to continue building on that record of success by calling these two bills for a vote.

    Thank you for your work,

    [NAME]