News

UCLA cancels plans for facial recognition

February 24, 2020

UCLA has abandoned plans to use facial recognition on campus for surveillance purposes, according to Fight for the Future, a nonprofit digital rights advocacy group. UCLA sent Fight for the Future a letter saying it is abandoning its plan in the face of community backlash, according to a press release. 

The school reversed its position hours after starting to work with a news outlet to release the results of a test using facial recognition software on UCLA's football and basketball teams as well as a number of faculty members.

The test found dozens of student athletes and professors were falsely matched with photos from a mugshot database, and the overwhelming majority of those misidentified were people of color.

Students and activists are planning a national day of action on March 2 to continue escalating the campaign to keep facial recognition off college campuses, according to the press release.