New Jersey Court Rules State Must Disclose Facial Recognition Use in Criminal Cases
A New Jersey court has ruled that the state is required to disclose when facial recognition technology was used in a criminal case. The decision establishes a disclosure obligation that gives defendants notice of AI-assisted identification evidence used against them.
Why this matters: If the government used an algorithm to help identify you as a suspect, you should know that before your trial. Facial recognition makes mistakes, and it makes them more often on darker-skinned faces. A defendant who never learns the technology was used cannot challenge it, cannot hire an expert, and cannot test whether the match was reliable. This ruling treats facial recognition like what it is: evidence that has to be disclosed. Every state that uses this technology and stays silent about it is running the same problem New Jersey just got called out for.
Who should care: Lawyers · Compliance · Privacy officers · Cybersecurity · General readers · Policy
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