NTIA Multistakeholder Process Finalizes General Privacy Guidelines For Commercial Facial Recognition Use

We've previously blogged about the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) privacy multistakeholder process to address concerns associated with the emerging commercial use of facial recognition technology. Notably, last year, the self-regulatory initiative hit a stumbling block when nine consumer advocacy groups withdrew from the process due to a lack of consensus on a minimum standard of consent. Regardless, the remaining participants continued on and last week, the stakeholders concluded the process and came to a consensus on final privacy guidelines, "Privacy Best Practice Recommendations For Commercial Facial Recognition Use."

The guidelines generally apply to "covered entities," or any person, including corporate affiliates, that collects, stores, or processes facial template data. The guidelines do not apply to the use of facial recognition for the purpose of aggregate or non-identifying analysis (e.g., the counting of unique