Portland, Oregon, has joined other jurisdictions in passing an ordinance that aims to ban the use of “facial recognition technology” in any place of “public accommodation.” Further, the ordinance bans any use of facial recognition technology unless use of the technology 1. Is necessary for compliance with law, 2. Is used to access a personal or employer-owned device or 3. Is in relation to an automatic face detection service in a mobile app. The ban explicitly applies to private entities. Like Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), the Portland ordinance contains a private right of action, but in this case, it goes beyond the $1,000 per negligent violation statutory damages offered by BIPA and states that “any person injured by a material violation … has a cause of action … for damages sustained as a result of the violation of $1,000 per day for each day of the violations, whichever is greater.”
