Como found to illegally use facial recognition

The municipality of Como, Italy, was forced to suspend its facial recognition system after intervention by the Italian Data Protection Authority. 

Como purchased, installed and tested facial recognition system as part of a "smart city" initiative. Consisting of six cameras covering a public green area near the city's railway station, the system was able to capture faces of passers-by, detect loitering, send alerts when packages were left unattended, check for trespassing in forbidden areas, search for individuals on a "blacklist", and set up a "red list" of VIPs whose images would not be recorded.

The system had been supplied by Huawei, a controversial Chinese technology company, as part of a broader "smart city" and innovation initiative, but had been criticised in the local media for failing to recognise faces. 

Italy's privacy watchdog ruled that the municipality of Como had spent public money on a system that could not be lawfully used, and that it had failed to properly acknowledge the differences between standard video surveillance and facial recognition in its Data Protection Impact Assessment. 

It also ordered Como to suspend the system.

Legal, regulatory 👩🏼‍⚖️

• Garante (2020). Provvedimento del 26 febbraio 2020 [9309458]

Research, advocacy 🧮

• EDRi. Campaign “Reclaim Your Face” calls for a Ban on Biometric Mass Surveillance

• DataActive. [BigDataSur-COVID] Solutionism, Surveillance, Borders and Infrastructures in the “Datafied Pandemic”

• Privacy International. How facial recognition is spreading in Italy: the case of Como

News, commentary, analysis 🗞️

• https://www.wired.it/internet/regole/2020/06/09/riconoscimento-facciale-como/

• https://www.politico.eu/article/activists-urge-eu-to-ban-live-facial-recognition-in-public-spaces/

• https://medium.com/life-on-the-other-planets-whats-new/a-city-that-recognises-your-voice-huawei-presents-new-smart-city-platform-f2f7bec435ba 

• https://www.ilgiorno.it/como/cronaca/fase-2-riconoscimento-facciale-1.5132239