Biometric surveillance technology like facial recognition is technology that can identify and analyze you and follow you in public areas. Bits of Freedom is of the opinion that such mass surveillance has no place in our streets.

What's going on?

Biometric surveillance is on the rise. Facial recognition especially is increasingly used in many places. Examples are supermarkets, soccer stadiums and the police. We know that the police apply facial recognition to ordinary camera images. But they also experiment with more drastic applications. Moreover, we have demonstrated how easy it is to use facial recognition software and public webcams to identify and follow people in the street.

Why are we concerned?

Public space plays a key role in a free and open society. It is the place where public life and public debate take place, and where we exercise our democratic rights, like the right to freedom of speech, freedom of religion and non-discrimination. It is important that everyone feels free in the public space. The use of biometric surveillance in public spaces comes at too high a cost for society. Due to the untargeted application of biometric surveillance every passer-by is captured. On a large scale, individuals can be identified, analyzed, followed, profiled and controlled. This technology creates a society of distrust, control and discrimination. A society in which you can no longer anonymously take part in public life. This has a restrictive effect on how free you feel to exercise your rights.

Biometrics reduce body characteristics to measurable units. Biometric surveillance turns people into walking barcodes who can be scanned and linked to data previously collected about them. Remember that you have just one face, and you can’t change the characteristics of that face and you can’t leave it home. Once a barcode has been linked to your face, it is possible to follow you everywhere. You have lost control over those data and there is no way to escape surveillance.

As with any other profiling technology the essence of biometrics is to differentiate between people and sort them, as it were. This not only intensifies the inequalities in our society, but also the imbalance of power between governments, technology corporations and citizens.

We believe that this technology constitutes a gross violation of our rights and freedoms, and harms our open and free society. With facial recognition becoming more and more common, it is high time to stand up for our freedoms in the public space.

What does Bits of Freedom think?

Current privacy laws prohibit biometric surveillance in the public space. As we think that’s clear enough, we don’t see the need for regulation or a moratorium.

Still, despite that prohibition we see this technology rearing its ugly head. National regulators prove inadequately prepared to enforce the law, to stop the use of this technology and to protect our rights and freedoms.

In a free society there is no place for biometric surveillance technology. That is why Bits of Freedom holds that this technology should be effectively banned from public life. To realize this, current laws should be enforced and the unlawful use of biometric surveillance ceased immediately.

What does Bits of Freedom do?

• Bits of Freedom campaigns for keeping our streets free from technology that identifies, analyzes and follows us. We put this topic on the agenda and raise awareness.