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Tech experts look to establish facial recognition software guidelines

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A group of technology industry experts will meet this Thursday to discuss facial recognition technologies and take the first steps toward establishing guidelines for future technology. An agency within the U.S. government's Commerce Department invited the group of privacy advocates, technical experts and industry professionals to come together.

The Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration hopes the invited group will emerge from this initial meeting with a set of voluntary guidelines for companies looking to use the technology. The FBI and Facebook, for instance, have already begun building facial recognition databases without government guidance, according to The Hill.

The meeting attendees haven't yet determined the scope of the guidelines. For instance, some want to clarify the uses of facial recognition technology, while others prefer to address privacy implications.

This meeting comes with renewed interest in IT security issues. Other government committees will host three separate hearings this week to dissect current IT security standards and whether federal laws are needed to enforce them, plus multiple lawmakers have introduced legislation in the wake of a wave of major retail store breaches.

[An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration established a government committee to investigate facial recognition standards].

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