New York seeks return of police facial recognition documents from privacy researcher again

New York City attorneys have provided documents concerning the NYPD’s biometric facial recognition system to the Georgetown Center on Privacy and Technology (CPT) without redactions they were supposed to have, for the second time, according to the New York Daily News.

The documents were marked for redaction, but the labelled information had not actually been blacked out. Justice Shlomo Hagler ordered researchers to return 20 pages of documents to the NYPD after a similar mistake was made in April. He may not do so again.

“One was too much. Two is more than I can tolerate at this time,” Judge Hagler reportedly said.

A Georgetown Law attorney argued that it would be difficult to return all of the information, as some has already been shared with a media outlet.

A New York Law Department spokesperson said that the mistake was due to an automated tool for redacting information from documents in FOIL (the state freedom of information law) requests, and that while such errors occasionally occur, the law allows for the return of documents inadvertently disclosed.

On the return of the first documents, CPT researcher Clare Garvie said disclosures from the NYPD have been inconsistent and selective.

An image among the documents shared by the Daily News shows Animetrics ForensicaGPS software in use.

Article Topics

Animetrics  |  biometrics  |  facial recognition  |  police  |  privacy