Get the latest tech news

NYPD bypassed facial recognition ban to ID pro-Palestinian student protester

Barred from using Clearview AI, NYC police relied on a marshal in the fire department to run a search that turned up photos of the student at his high school graduation.

Details of the arrangement emerged in a recent decision by a Manhattan criminal court judge and in a lawsuit seeking information from the FDNY filed this month by the Legal Aid Society, which represented the protester, Zuhdi Ahmed, now a 21-year-old pre-med CUNY student going into his senior year of college. Shane Ferro, Digital Forensics Unit staff attorney at Legal Aid, who had represented Ahmed, sought to learn more about facial recognition technology operated by the FDNY, but requests made under the New York Freedom of Information Law, or FOIL, went nowhere. Councilmember Jennifer Gutiérrez (D-Brooklyn), chair of the technology committee said, “What happened here is a warning shot: without clear checks and oversight, city agencies are using powerful surveillance tools like facial recognition and AI with no accountability, no transparency, and no regard for due process.”

Get the Android app