Biometrics
Filter by...
-
Looking back at digital rights in the era of a surveillance pandemic
2020 started as a year to build momentum to tackle various digital rights issues, including mass surveillance and freedom of expression online. Needless to say, the global pandemic disrupted not only these efforts but also our health, personal relations, basic survival needs and ways to organise around human rights. After 9 months of living and working in a pandemic, we look back at what we achieved and the ways forward from here.
Read more
-
Campaign “Reclaim Your Face” calls for a Ban on Biometric Mass Surveillance
Civil society across Europe launches the “Reclaim Your Face” campaign, demanding that local and national authorities listen to their communities about the serious risks of using facial recognition and other biometric technologies in public spaces. The newly formed coalition calls to ban biometric mass surveillance, in reaction to the rapid and secretive roll out of invasive and unlawful technologies by police forces and local authorities in many European countries.
Read more
-
EDRi-gram, 14 October 2020
The public are being treated as experimental test subjects: across these examples, it is clear that members of the public are being used as subjects in high-stakes experiments which can have real-life impacts on their freedom, access to public services, and sense of security.
Read more
-
Technology has codified structural racism – will the EU tackle racist tech?
The EU is preparing its ‘Action Plan’ to address structural racism in Europe. With digital high on the EU’s legislative agenda, it’s time we tackle racism perpetuated by technology, writes Sarah Chander.
Read more
-
SHARE Foundation presents #hiljadekamera : A documentary on biometric mass surveillance
SHARE Foundation has recently released a short documentary on the controversial use of the mass surveillance system in Belgrade, Serbia. Various digital experts and activists took part in the documentary, including the national Data Protection Authority in Serbia and EDRi's own Policy and Campaigns Officer, Ella Jakubowska.
Read more
-
IBM’s facial recognition: the solution cannot be left to companies
On 8 June 2020, IBM’s CEO announced to the US Congress that – on the grounds of “justice and racial equity” – the company would “sunset” its “general purpose” facial recognition technologies. EDRi has addressed the company through a letter, but IBM's response suggests the organisation is motivated by public relations, instead of fundamental rights.
Read more
-
Open Letter: EDRi calls on IBM to clarify stance on facial recognition
On 25 June, EDRi sent an open letter to the CEO of IBM in response to their 8 June statement on racial equality and facial recognition in the US.
Read more
-
COVID-Tech: the sinister consequences of immunity passports
In EDRi’s series on COVID-19, COVIDTech, we explore the critical principles for protecting fundamental rights while curtailing the spread of the virus, as outlined in the EDRi network’s statement on the pandemic.
Read more
-
Ban biometric mass surveillance!
44 civil society organisations call for a ban on biometric mass surveillance in EDRi's new paper, "Ban Biometric Mass Surveillance: A set of fundamental rights demands for the European Commission and EU Member States"
Read more
-
Why COVID-19 is a Crisis for Digital Rights
The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered an equally urgent digital rights crisis. New measures being hurried in to curb the spread of the virus, from “biosurveillance” and online tracking to censorship, are potentially as world-changing as the disease itself.
Read more
-
Facial Recognition & Biometric Mass Surveillance: Document Pool
Despite evidence that public facial recognition and other forms of biometric mass surveillance infringe on a wide range EU fundamental rights, European authorities and companies are deploying these systems at a rapid rate. This has happened without proper consideration for how such practices invade people's privacy on an enormous scale; amplify existing inequalities; and undermine democracy, freedom and justice.
Read more
-
Dangerous by design: A cautionary tale about facial recognition
In this fifth and final installment of EDRi's facial recognition and fundamental rights series, we consider an experience of harm caused by fundamentally violatory biometric surveillance technology.
Read more