The NYC MTA has gotten pretty creative in their attempts to combat fare evasion, from preventing certain emergency door exits from opening immediately to unveiling new turnstile prototypes. Amongst all of this they also quietly rolled out AI software to track fare evasion, though facial recognition is now being nixed from their efforts.
While the recent state budget is introducing some news laws, such as allowing movie theaters to sell hard liquor and potentially reducing NYC’s speed limit to 20 mph, on the other hand it’s banning the MTA from using facial recognition to combat fare evasion.
According to the new law, the MTA cannot “use, or arrange for the use, of biometric identifying technology, including but not limited to facial recognition technology, to enforce rules relating to the payment of fares.”
State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani told Gothamist the ban was added as a way to protect New Yorkers’ privacy.
Mamdani stated:
There has long been a concern [facial recognition] could invade upon people’s lives through expanded surveillance and through the criminalization of just existing within the public sphere.
According to the publication, an MTA spokesperson stated that though the agency is in the process of installing cameras in each subway station and some train cars, they’ve never used facial recognition.
The NYPD, on the other hand, has been using facial recognition for the last 13 years, and they have access to MTA video footage. It’s currently not clear if the new law also prevents the NYPD from using facial recognition on subway surveillance footage.
Some, such as Will Owen, a spokesperson for New York-based civil rights group the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, are trying to ban the use of facial recognition altogether.
Owen is calling for “New York state to pass legislation that would fully outlaw the use of facial recognition and other biometric surveillance by government agencies.”