Content area
Full text
Introduction
Rapid advances in technology are disrupting the balance of power between governors and the governed. Automated facial recognition technology (AFR) is not the only biometric surveillance technology that is in ascendency and posing challenges for law, but it is perhaps the one that has most captured the public imagination. AFR is an algorithmic technology. AFR algorithms are developed to locate a face within an image, measure the geometric features of the face (distance between eyes, width of mouth etc), and then ‘match’ the face to a previously stored image of the individual (usually stored on a watchlist or database), based on the strength of the correlation between geometric features.1 It has numerous applications, such as automating border identity verification checks,2 pupil registration in schools,3 or enabling more effective photo sharing on social networking sites.
AFR is being utilised by law enforcement agencies across the world to fulfil various functions. In some jurisdictions with autocratic political regimes, AFR has been used for overt repression and persecution. One egregious example is the Communist Party of China, which has invested heavily in developing the infrastructure to pervasively monitor and control citizens. In 2015, Party officials called for an acceleration of public security video monitoring systems in order to achieve ‘systematic and dense coverage’ of all public areas.4 In particular, the Party has targeted its Uyghur Muslim population in the Xinjiang region, installing AFR cameras, supplied by global surveillance manufacturer Hikvision, at the entrances to 967 mosques.5 Most security checkpoints stationed along Xinjiang's major roads now employ facial recognition cameras of varying sophistication.6 The technology is facilitating the Communist Party of China's authoritarian control of the region, where internment in ‘re-education camps’ and other human rights abuses of the Uyghur population have been well documented.7
Chinese AFR surveillance infrastructure is also being purchased and utilised by Governments in developing nations, such as Uganda and Zimbabwe.8 Other autocratic regimes are looking to AFR to strengthen controls on their citizens’ movements. In January 2020, Amnesty International reported that Russian authorities plan to operationalise a large-scale facial recognition system covering the whole Moscow Metro transportation network.9 Whilst the use of AFR in these jurisdictions is not constrained by the checks and...