Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) speaks during a Breakfast and Conversation event for Utah young professionals in the tech industry at Church & State in Salt Lake City Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016.
SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah senator says police need to get a warrant before they start using technology to track and recognize faces.
Senator Mike Lee just introduced a new bill in Congress.
The bi-partisan bill involves federal police agencies, like the TSA, border patrol, FBI or ICE.
It says they would have to obtain a warrant to use facial recognition technology for surveillance.
Lee and his democratic co-sponsor, Delaware Senator Chris Coons, say the technology could be abused, become invasive, and violate people’s privacy.
This bill says even after getting a warrant, surveillance would be limited to 30 days.
Facial recognition technology creates a “template” of a person’s face and compares it to photos found in places like driver licenses, government IDs, mugshots and social media.
The Deseret News reports Utah does not allow the Feds to use facial recognition searches in state databases, but they do search upon request from a criminal investigation.