Congressman Cleaver Calls For Federal Facial Recognition Technology Testing Standards

Washington, D.C. - November 29, 2018 - (The Ponder News) -- Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, II sent a letter to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), encouraging NIST to endorse industry standards and ethical best practices for the independent testing of demographic-based biases in facial recognition technology. NIST is a non-regulatory agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

In the letter to Dr. Walter Copan, NIST Director and U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology, Congressman Cleaver wrote:

“Facial recognition is a powerful tool that is permeating American life, and yet, the propensity of the technology to misidentify individuals, particularly in regard to variances in skin-type and gender, is well-documented,” said Congressman Cleaver. “The potential for illegal discrimination and/or unfair practices resulting from such bias continues to concern lawmakers.”

Congressman Cleaver has been a prominent voice in growing calls for diversity and regulatory reform in the rapidly-expanding tech industry:

• In August 2018, Congressman Cleaver called on the Department of Justice to investigate law enforcement’s use of facial recognition technologies.

• In August 2018, following a year-long investigation into FinTech small business lending practices, Congressman Cleaver announced his findings and called for the implementations of industry-wide practices to prevent discriminatory lending.

• In May 2018, Congressman Cleaver sent a letter to Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos, inquiring about the company’s “Rekognition” technology.

• In May 2018, with the support of Congresswomen Yvette Clarke (D-NY), Robin Kelly (D-IL), and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ), Congressman Cleaver wrote a letter to Amazon expressing frustration at the company’s refusal to institute a “Rooney Rule” that would improve the board’s racial diversity.

• In February 2018, Congressman Cleaver urged cryptocurrency companies to do more in efforts to prevent extremists from using cryptocurrency to fund campaigns of hate and violence.

• In November 2017, along with Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman, Congressman Cleaver demanded the Internet Association—a trade association representing tech behemoths like Amazon, Facebook, and Google—address gender and racial biases among its members.

• In October 2017, in conjunction with Congresswomen Bonnie Watson Coleman, Congressman Cleaver penned a letter to Facebook Chief Operating Officer, Sheryl Sandberg, and Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, encouraging them to take immediate action to combat the racially divisive content on their platforms.

“As technology and the tech industry as a whole continue to evolve, it is imperative that standards are created to ensure that technology is being used responsibly and without the potential for discrimination. I look forward to the opportunity to work with NIST on formulating these recommended guidelines,” said Congressman Cleaver.

Read the full letter here.

MCCAUL, DHS TACKLE TERRORIST ABUSE OF ENCRYPTION

By House Committee on Homeland Security



Washington, D.C. - December 21, 2017 - (The Ponder News) -- House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) recently wrote to the Department of Homeland Security, requesting the Secretary convene an advisory body of experts to help the Department—and the wider intelligence and law enforcement community—better understand and respond to the challenges posed by terrorist abuse of widely available encryption technologies. In many ways, this reflects the Chairman’s longstanding call for leaders in the private sector and across government and civil society to work together on this issue.

As outlined in the Committee’s “Going Dark, Going Forward” report last year, encryption technologies safeguard Americans’ personal information from bad actors, but this same digital security can present significant barriers to lawful access to digital evidence and other information critical to the safety and security of Americans.

Chairman McCaul: “For years, I have advocated for greater collaboration between leaders across law enforcement, tech community, and other stakeholders to help solve pressing national security issues, including terrorists’ abuse of widely-available encrypted communications tools. I am pleased the Department is taking action to bring together the key players to address this and related security issues so we can find ways to improve cooperation between law enforcement, national security communities, private industry and others. I look forward to continued engagement with the Department and its Homeland Security Advisory Council so we can better to keep criminals and terrorists from exploiting these technologies. The safety and security of our citizens demand no less.”

See more headlines at The Ponder News Web Site

Senator Markey Reintroduces ‘Smart Gun’ Legislation to Increase Gun Safety

Washington, D.C. - October 5, 2017 (The Ponder News) -- Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) reintroduced legislation to address the gun violence that is gripping communities across the country. The bill, the Handgun Trigger Safety Act, would improve gun safety by ensuring that only authorized users would be able to operate handguns utilizing personalization (or “smart gun”) technology. There are roughly 33,000 deaths and 79,000 injuries from gun violence each year in the United States. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives, and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is a co-sponsor of the Senate legislation. In 2016, the Obama administration announced a new effort to study and expand the deployment of smart gun technology, and the Department of Justice released a report to improve and deploy the technology.

“To anyone who says that taking action now to address gun safety is ‘too soon’, it’s already too late for at least 59 people in Las Vegas,” said Senator Markey. “We need to pass commonsense gun legislation that keeps these weapons out of the hands of people who should not have them. The Handgun Trigger Safety Act utilizes technology to ensure that only authorized users can operate a gun. We have technology that requires a fingerprint to operate an iPhone; we should do the same for a handgun. Smart gun technology is smart gun safety policy.”

The Handgun Trigger Safety Act would support the use of personalization (or smart gun) technology that allows the purchaser of a gun to designate authorized user(s) who can operate the gun and would make the gun inoperable for all others. Personalized handguns are already sold overseas and have been available in the United States since 2011.

Specifically, the Handgun Trigger Safety Act would:

Authorize grants to develop and improve “personalized” handgun technology to increase efficacy and decrease costs;

Mandate that, within five years of enactment, all newly manufactured handguns must be personalized, ensuring that they can only be operated by authorized users;

Mandate that, within ten years of enactment, anyone selling a handgun must retrofit it with personalization technology before that sale can be completed; and

Provide reimbursement to manufacturers for the costs of retrofitting handguns through the Department of Justice Assets Forfeiture Fund.