The Syracuse Common Council on Monday took another step toward enacting a local law to block businesses in the city from collecting customers’ biometric information.
Councilors Corey Williams, Jimmy Monto, and Chol Majok introduced a bill that would ban biometric surveillance in commercial settings and other places of public accommodation, though financial institutions would be exempted from the proposed legislation.
The councilors’ proposal follows months of legislative efforts around New York state from local elected officials seeking to safeguard consumers from undisclosed biometric surveillance. In January, The Gothamist reported on new biometric disclosure signs outside Wegman’s locations — the result of a New York City ordinance requiring businesses to disclose such surveillance — setting of a spree of legislative proposals in local governments across the state to regulate commercial actors’ use of the technology.
Biometric information refers to images or recordings of facial features, retina and iris scans, handprints and fingerprints, genetics, voice, walking patterns and other characteristic movements or gestures.
In Syracuse, the introduced and tabled legislation comes a week after Erie County lawmakers enacted a similar law. The Erie County Legislature on Thursday passed the Biometric Transparency and Privacy Act, which Monto said is similar to the proposal introduced in the Syracuse Common Council. The Erie County legislation, like the councilors’ law, exempts financial institutions from the ban, and also exempts government agencies.
After Monday’s meeting, Monto said the carve out for financial institutions was made in part because banks are frequent targets for robberies.
“They’re very often armed robberies. So we thought it was the right thing to do, the right thing to carve out,” Monto said. “I’m not aware that anybody locally is actually using it in a bank, it’s where we are.”
While the city biometric ban will remain tabled for another two weeks, the Onondaga County Legislature is expected to vote Tuesday on a biometric disclosure law. That law, akin to the New York City disclosure law that set off the biometric bill blitz, would not ban biometric surveillance, but would require businesses to conspicuously disclose such surveillance to customers at the entrances of establishments employing such technology.
Wegmans does not have any locations within city limits, so the council’s law, if passed, wouldn’t block the grocery chain from employing biometric surveillance tools on customers. But, if the county legislature’s disclosure law is approved on Tuesday, Central New Yorkers will get the answer to a question that Wegmans has refused to answer despite several reporters and elected officials posing it: Does Wegmans collect biometric information in its Upstate locations?
In statements to Central Current, Wegmans twice did not respond to questions about whether it uses the same biometric surveillance technology in Central New York as it uses in New York City. In Monroe County, home to Wegmans’ Rochester headquarters, Legislator Rachel Barnhart issued a letter to the company seeking clarity on how, when, where and why Wegmans collects biometric information on its customers.
In Albany, State Senator Rachel May, whose district encompasses Syracuse, is sponsoring a statewide biometric ban in places of public accommodation. That proposal, like the Erie County legislation, served as a template for the council’s proposed local law.
“I applaud these local efforts to address biometric surveillance and its potential for biased or discriminatory effects,” May said in a statement to Central Current. “Any state-wide policy will depend on local buy-in, and this demonstrates strong local support for protecting the public from intrusive use of their biometric data. “
Monto said he is not sure if the council’s biometric ban, if enacted, would apply to any commercial entities in the city, but said it will establish regulations for cutting-edge tools that more companies are likely to consider implementing in the future.
“So as far as I know right now, nobody in Destiny USA is using biometrics,” Monto said. “I did meet with Destiny, and they are not using it themselves. They do use some shopping trackers, but nothing biometric.”
The Syracuse city charter requires councilors to introduce, then table proposed local laws. The councilors will next consider the biometric ban in the council’s next voting session on Monday, May 18.
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