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<p>It is right to debate the use of new technologies in democratic societies. It is
clearly a decision for the San Francisco City Board of Supervisors whether its agencies
should use facial recognition technology.</p><p>Facial recognition has the potential
to play an important role in the detection and prevention of crime, and the police
here have commissioned independent reviews of its effectiveness.</p><p>Facial recognition
is a fast evolving area of technology with the potential to streamline identity verification
and authentication processes across Government and the private sector. When used in
the appropriate setting and context, it has proved to be a very reliable and accurate
tool. Its performance is dependent on a number of variables, from the quality of the
images, environmental factors, the specific algorithm used, the thresholds or risk
profile applied and many other factors. Possible matches produced by live facial recognition
systems are always checked by a human operator before deciding what, if any, action
to take.</p>
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