Last August, the citizens of Portland, Maine, have held a vote in order to fight back against a new facial-recognition software used by the police and local government.

Indeed, they feared that this AI software would allow government officials and cops to illegally spy on them. Hence, they voted to ban these agencies to use it, directly or through a third-party. Yet, no penalties were associated with it.

This is why, this week, Portland citizens voted to back a ballot initiative that will lead to a penalty of $100 every time the ban is violated. However, in order to actually get the money, they will have to sue and prove that they were illegally monitored with the facial-recognition software.

Furthermore, staff can also be fired if they use the software against the population, and private organizations are not protected by these new laws.