Facial recognition technology (FRT) is being developed and deployed at phenomenal speeds and lawmakers worldwide are scrambling to catch up. The resulting pieces of legislative and enforcement efforts convey that although there is consensus that something needs to be done to regulate the burgeoning technology, there is little consensus on the approach that should be taken. In this article, we highlight some of the key trends that have come out of the United States and the European Union thus far.

United States

In the United States, legislative proposals can be divided into those seeking to regulate government use of FRT and those seeking to regulate commercial use of FRT.