States must follow New York’s lead and say no to facial recognition in schools.
The world’s most dangerous surveillance technology is invading our schools and putting our children at risk. School systems across the country are quietly spending millions conducting unethical experiments with facial recognition software, using it to scan, analyze, and collect sensitive biometric information on tens of thousands of students, parents, teachers, and staff.
Facial recognition technology isn’t safe. It’s biased, and more likely to misidentify students of color. It’s invasive, enabling anyone with access to the system to watch our kids’ movements, analyze facial expressions, monitor who people talk to, and even track how many times students go to the bathroom.
Publicly they claim this is about security, but school administrators are already bragging about using this technology to target students for being late or minor rule breaking. Minority students are more likely to end up on watch lists or to get falsely arrested because of an error in the system.
But there is hope: New York State decided to ban facial recognition in schools, based on an impactful report that concluded any benefits were far outweighed by the harms. We can build on the momentum coming out of this decision and push other states to take the same steps to protect our kids.
Fill out the form to add your name to the open letter calling on state education departments, lawmakers, and other school administrators to keep our kids safe by rejecting with dangerous surveillance technology.