Half of US adults are profiled in police facial recognition databases

Photographs of nearly half of all U.S. adults — 117 million people — are collected in police facial recognition databases across the country with little regulation over how the networks are searched and used, according to a new study.

Along with a lack of regulation, critics question the accuracy of facial recognition algorithms. Meanwhile, state, city, and federal facial recognition databases include 48 percent of U.S. adults, said the report from the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law. 

The search of facial recognition databases is largely unregulated, the report said. “A few agencies have instituted meaningful protections to prevent the misuse of the technology,” its authors wrote. “In many more cases, it is out of control.”

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