Steal your face

 NY Post

This could put a real dent in the fake ID market.

The New York State Senate is moving forward with proposed legislation that would allow bars and restaurants to use facial recognition or fingerprint scanners to verify someone’s age before they buy alcohol, tobacco or electronic cigarettes.

“This is the new frontier of age verification,” said state Sen. James Skoufis, who is sponsoring the biometrics bill. “It does advance the interests of convenience.”

Skoufis envisions that bars and restaurants could scan fingerprints, faces or retinas of customers who want to be spared the trouble of showing an ID when they return to an establishment in the future. The proposed legislation requires all data to be encrypted and prohibits businesses from selling biometric data to third parties.

“No one’s forced into engaging with this technology, but they would have the choice,” Skoufis said. “There’s no big brother involved.”

Skoufis, who chairs the Investigation and Government Operations Committee, said he expects his committee will advance the proposal to the full Senate Monday. There is currently no sponsor in the Assembly though Skoufis said several members have expressed interest.

State lawmakers are scheduled to adjourn for the year on June 2.

Washington state approved a similar proposal in 2018, which allows spectators at professional sporting events to pass security and buy concessions with their fingerprints.

The legislative language states that the State Liquor Authority and the state Department of Health would be responsible for crafting regulations controlling the recording and maintenance of biometric data, which the bill states must be “stored in a centralized, highly secured, encrypted biometric database.”

Expanding the use of biometrics means privacy risks for New Yorkers, according to Albert Fox Cahn, a visiting fellow at Yale Law School and executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. And unlike a credit card number or driver’s license, biometrics canno ever be changed, he added.

“This is a horrifying invitation for identity theft,” he said. “If one bar or restaurant gets hacked, our identities are compromised for the rest of our lives … more biometric data, potentially expands the power of government agencies to track us because this data is just going to be one court order away from being turned into a policing tool.”

 

LLC's are now required to reveal their identities in New York

Daily Freeman


People who control limited liability corporations (LLCs) that own residential rental properties in New York state can no longer hide their identities.

Sen. James Skoufis, D-Woodbury, and Assemblyman Ken Zebrowski, D-New City, announced this week that their legislation requiring the disclosure of such LLC operators' names has been signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Under the new law, which takes effect immediately, LLCs that own residential properties containing one to four units "will now be required to share the names and contact information for all owners, managers and agents associated with the company at the time of a real estate transaction,” the legislators said in a prepared statement.

“Currently, it is difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain the true ownership of anonymous LLCs, leaving municipalities with no person to hold responsible for code violations, illegal building or fines,” the statement continued.

Until now, a limited liability corporation buying, say, a residential property at 1234 Main St., had been allowed to identify itself only vaguely, such as 1234 Main Street LLC.

Skoufis, whose Senate district includes parts of Ulster, Orange and Rockland counties, said the new law “will rip the mask off of these anonymous LLCs that continue to purchase massive amounts of real estate in the Hudson Valley."

“Neighbors have a fundamental right to know who owns the home next door to them,” Skoufis said. 

“Likewise, municipalities are desperate for this disclosure when they seek to hold property owners accountable for ... violations."