College students around the country have launched a campaign against the adoption of facial recognition technology on campus. A report revealed that the University of San Francisco deployed the technology in campus dorm rooms as early as 2013 to surveil students.
According to a report by Campus Reform, students are fighting back against the adoption of surveillance technology on campus. Various media reports have revealed that colleges around the country have installed surveillance technology to monitor their students.
Now, student activist organizations are fighting back. Members of the Students for Sensible Drug Policy and Fight for the Future have joined together to fight back against surveillance.
Erica Darragh, a board member at Students for Sensible Drug Policy, argued that surveillance technology particularly threatens minority students.
“Students should not have to trade their right to privacy for an education, and no one should be forced to unwittingly participate in a surveillance program which will likely include problematic elements of law enforcement,” Darragh said. “This automation of racial and political profiling threatens everyone, especially students, faculty, and campus guests of color. Students have an obligation to prevent this technology going mainstream, beginning with university campuses, where we have the most power and we know how to win.”
Evan Greer, the Deputy Director of Fight for the Future, argued in a press release that surveillance technology threatens the freedom of all Americans.
Facial recognition surveillance spreading to college campuses would put students, faculty, and community members at risk. This type of invasive technology poses a profound threat to our basic liberties, civil rights, and academic freedom. Schools that are already using this technology are conducting unethical experiments on their students. Students and staff have a right to know if their administrations are planning to implement biometric surveillance on campus. Grassroots organizing stopped facial recognition from ruining music festivals. Now we’re going to stop it from invading university campuses.
Breitbart News reported in August that MIT was calling for a ban on the use of facial recognition technology by the police and government.
Stay tuned to Breitbart News for more updates on this story.