The San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the California-based city's legislative body, has banned the use of facial recognition technologies by city authorities, such as police and public transit operators. It is the first city in the United States to do so. According to supporters of the law, today's facial recognition technologies are unreliable, particularly in identifying women or people with dark skin, and represent an excessive and unnecessary intrusion of people's privacy. Currently the San Francisco police do not use this type of technology, but they had tested it between 2013 and 2017. The only two contexts in which it can be used with the new law (which will come into effect in a month) are structures. operated by the federal authorities at the city's international airport and port.
