Microsoft Urges Congress to Regulate Use of Facial Recognition

Bradford L. Smith, the company’s president, compared the technology to products like medicines and cars that are highly regulated, and he urged Congress to study it and oversee its use.“We live in a nation of laws, and the government needs to play an important role in regulating facial recognition technology,” 

Mr. Smith wrote. He added: “A world with vigorous regulation of products that are useful but potentially troubling is better than a world devoid of legal standards.”

Now, Microsoft is moving to position itself as an industry leader by calling for government regulation of facial recognition, and for “the development of norms around acceptable uses,” of the technology. The company may also be trying to get out ahead of a budding movement in states like California to tightly regulate the technology.

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