In a letter last month to the Federal Trade Commission, Senator Rockefeller urged the regulatory agency to study the technology and recommend legislation that would protect privacy. 

“I ask that the commission provide a report to the [Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation] following the workshop, and that this report include potential legislative approaches to protect consumer privacy as this technology proliferates,” the senator wrote. 

In particular, Rockefeller is concerned that the technology could be used for surveillance or by companies to track Internet users through their images online, even without their knowledge. 

As evidence of the far reaching scope of facial recognition technology, in his letter, Rockefeller points to smartphone apps like SceneTap, which “tracks the male/female ratio and age mix of the crowd” at a bar, and digital advertising at hotels in Las Vegas that customizes its content based on an individual’s age and gender. 

To help protect privacy, Rockefeller has introduced a “Do Not Track” bill which aims to give individuals the power to stop third-party marketers from tracking activity online. 

“As in many fast growing and changing sectors, public policy has not kept pace with the development of this sort of technology,” Rockefeller wrote. “The privacy concerns are evident. As the Commerce Committee considers privacy legislation in the future, we will need to understand the capabilities of this technology as well as the privacy and security concerns raised by their development.”