Electronic lineup

If your picture is on your driver’s license, it’s also in a state-maintained database of driver’s license photos. The FBI and other law enforcement agencies across the country are increasingly searching those databases using sophisticated facial recognition software. Privacy advocates are concerned such use of technology by law enforcement amounts to a “virtual lineup.”

In an October report, the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law Center raised concerns that 16 states now let the FBI run searches against their driver’s license photo databases, creating “a biometric network that primarily includes law-abiding Americans.” The report’s authors called this “unprecedented and highly problematic.”

Noting the history of FBI and police surveillance of civil rights protests, the report also highlighted what it called a “real risk” that police facial recognition technology could be used to stifle free speech.

The authors’ aim was not to stop the use of the software, which they acknowledged has proven very effective, but rather to urge Congress and state legislatures to regulate it. Among the report’s recommendations:

• Limit most searches to databases composed of police photographs, not driver’s licenses and photo IDs.

• For any searches of driver’s license and photo ID databases, require legislative approval or a court order.

• Ban the use of facial recognition technology to track people based on race, ethnic identity, or political and religious beliefs.

Internet space race

The goal of providing high-speed internet service to remote and underdeveloped parts of the world is one step closer. In November SpaceX—the private space company founded by entrepreneur Elon Musk—filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission for a satellite network it claims will provide broadband internet access around the globe.

The system, which Musk first announced in early 2015, would cost around $10 billion and take several years to get off the ground. SpaceX plans to begin commercial service with 800 satellites covering the most populated areas of the Northern and Southern hemispheres, eventually growing to a constellation of 4,425 satellites.

“Once fully deployed, the SpaceX system will pass over virtually all parts of the Earth’s surface and therefore, in principle, have the ability to provide ubiquitous global service,” SpaceX said in the technical information that accompanied its application.

Musk’s company isn’t the only one seeking to provide global satellite internet: So are OneWeb, a consortium that includes Airbus and Virgin Group, and Boeing, which plans to place a 1,000-satellite system into low Earth orbit, according to tech website GeekWire. —M.C.

Noise rule

Electric and hybrid vehicles are much quieter than traditional cars and trucks. That may be a plus for drivers and passengers, but for pedestrians with vision or hearing problems, an oncoming electric or hybrid car may be too quiet for safety.

Last month, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration enacted a rule requiring all four-wheel hybrid and electric vehicles weighing up to 10,000 pounds to make an audible noise when traveling either in reverse or forward at low speeds. The NHTSA estimates the rule will prevent 2,400 pedestrian injuries each year.

Manufacturers have until Sept. 1, 2019, to equip new hybrid and electric vehicles with sounds that meet the safety standard. —M.C.