I am not sure what "defunding" would accomplish at this point. At this point, the research has been done, and the products are available for astonishingly low p

I am not sure what "defunding" would accomplish at this point. At this point, the research has been done, and the products are available for astonishingly low prices. We don't stop oil spills by defunding offshore oil wells that have already been dug, and attempting to do so is likely to result in more oil spills as the money for maintenance is cut. Similarly, I'd expect that if budget for facial recognition is slashed, the parts that will be cut are oversight and training, and so now instead of just dealing with questionable technology, you're dealing with questionable technology used by people who have no idea what they're doing. Also, as long as public spaces are under constant video surveillance, stopping facial recognition now only solves the problem temporarily. I think at a bare minimum, we need standards for when this evidence should be admissible in court (at current tech levels, probably approximately never) and when it is acceptable to use it in searches. The technical ship has sailed, so any fix is going to have to be legislative at this point.