Export Restrictions for Crime-Control Items Still Under Review, BIS Says
The Bureau of Industry and Security is still reviewing export controls on facial recognition software, surveillance-related products and other goods controlled for crime-control reasons after requesting feedback on the potential restrictions in July 2020, said Hillary Hess, BIS’s regulatory policy…
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director. Although no new restrictions have been announced, Hess said new controls for items described in the rule, including crime-control goods that may be used for human rights abuses, are still being considered. “We have been looking at that,” Hess said during a Dec. 14 Regulations and Procedures Technical Advisory Committee meeting. “It’s definitely on our plate.” In the 2020 rule, BIS solicited feedback on possibly imposing new licensing requirements for biometric systems for surveillance, non-lethal visual disruption lasers, long-range acoustic devices and other surveillance-related technologies and goods (see 2007160021). In comments, several technology companies warned BIS against imposing overly broad, unilateral export restrictions that could hurt U.S. competitiveness, while a human rights advocacy group and a U.S. lawmaker called for new export restrictions and suggested existing controls should be strengthened (see 2010090044).