Comments for White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) on Biometric Tech

The New York Civil Liberties Union (“NYCLU”) submits these comments in response to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s(“OSTP”) Request for Information regarding Biometric Technologies (document number 2021-21975) dated October 8, 2021.

Biometric surveillance technologies, which include face, voice, and gait recognition, give unprecedented power to track who we are, where we go, and who we meet, enabling an invasion of privacy that reaches far beyond traditional surveillance techniques. They are highly flawed and racially biased. The use of these technologies by government agencies presents a clear danger to our civil rights and liberties and threatens to erode our fundamental rights to privacy, free speech, and equal treatment under the law. It is urgently imperative that the federal government act to stop the proliferation of biometric surveillance and ban its use.