The Surveillance State must be fought; Facial Recognition on the back burner

Another friend sends me this from The Verge, reporting that IBM has shelved its plans for facial recognition.

IBM will no longer offer, develop, or research facial recognition technology, goes the headline. The CEO sent a letter to the black democrat members of Congress.

“IBM firmly opposes and will not condone uses of any [facial recognition] technology, including facial recognition technology offered by other vendors, for mass surveillance, racial profiling, violations of basic human rights and freedoms, or any purpose which is not consistent with our values and Principles of Trust and Transparency,” Krishna said in the letter. “We believe now is the time to begin a national dialogue on whether and how facial recognition technology should be employed by domestic law enforcement agencies.”

While this is presented as a sop to Black Lives Matter, however you cut it, it is a very good thing.