In a remarkably modern take on Orwellian allegory, California regulators have decided that even cows are entitled to some personal space — or at least, the right not to be constant unwitting participants in Silicon Valley’s latest tech experiment. The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), in a moment of regulatory clarity that might make even the cows moo in appreciation, put a firm red-ink circle around facial recognition software being tested on livestock by a private startup, declaring that such biometric scanning requires formal approval under state law. Apparently, privacy now means more than just humans arguing over smartphone cookies.
The company in question, CattleTech Industries — a name which sounds like it might alternatively manufacture intergalactic bovine battle armor — had been trialing facial recognition software in several California dairies. The goal was to monitor cows in real time and track individual animals based on facial features and behavior. While Orwell envisioned pigs in charge, here we have cows starring in their own unsolicited surveillance drama, one milking session at a time.
CDFA officials stepped in after becoming aware that the biometric scans were being deployed without following the state’s Animal Biometrics Rule, which, while not usually the page-turner stocked at bedtime, is apparently quite strict on what kind of sci-fi surveillance can be conducted in barns without prior consent. As the state’s agricultural overlords diplomatically put it, “Biometric data collection falls under regulated provisions” — which is polite regulatory speak for “you definitely need to ask before sticking cameras in the cowshed.”
CattleTech, for their part, insisted the data was anonymized and used to improve herd health, though critics might note that “anonymized cow facial recognition” is rather like building an app that tracks you everywhere while promising not to know your name. Privacy advocates cheered the decision, arguing that California’s strong biometric legislation should apply to creatures great and small — including those with four stomachs and an aversion to terms of service agreements.
Meanwhile, farmers appeared divided. Some appreciated the potential for better herd management, while others balked at the notion of submitting their livestock to a biometric future that sounds a lot more like Blade Runner than Little House on the Prairie. For now, California’s cows can rest easy, unscanned and unprofiled, blissfully unaware that their bovine brethren nearly became the latest pawns in the tech industry’s unrelenting quest to recognize all faces everywhere.
At least until the pigs find out and demand equal algorithmic representation.