FEATURE-Brazil activates facial recognition against rioters despite fears of racism

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* Brazilian police will use facial recognition to identify rioters

* Cameras are unreliable, invasive and racist, experts say

* Surveillance sows fear in the favelas

By Leonardo Coelho RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 12 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Brazilian police plan to use facial recognition to identify protesters who ransacked government buildings, stepping up state surveillance in a move that has alarmed privacy and human rights experts.

Thousands of protesters vandalized Brazil’s Supreme Court, Congress and presidential offices in Brasilia on Sunday, seeking to overthrow leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who narrowly beat incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in the October vote . Police arrested around 1,000 people and said on Tuesday they would use biometrics “to identify those responsible for acts of vandalism”.

Facial recognition works in 21 of Brazil’s 27 states, whether to monitor urban transport or track school attendance. Rights groups say their rollout was opaque, with no public consultations or clarity on how the data is used and protected.

While authorities justify surveillance on security grounds, tech experts worry about privacy violations and the potential for profiling and discrimination, especially of black and indigenous people. Since 2019, 90% of people arrested using facial recognition in Brazil have been black, according to Panoptico, a project that monitors the use of facial recognition in Brazil.

“As a mass surveillance tool, facial recognition is a fast-track patchwork solution that time and time again fails to achieve the security goals it purports to enable,” said Matt Mahmoudi, a researcher at Amnesty Tech, a branch of ‘Amnesty International which thwarts digital repression. “It also erodes fundamental rights. Historically, marginalized communities are particularly at risk, as is the privacy of Brazilians in general,” he added.

FAVELA UNDER SURVEILLANCE For the inhabitants of the Jacarezinho favela in Rio de Janeiro, facial recognition could soon become a daily danger.

Already, Jamila worries every time her 23-year-old son steps out of their modest home, fearing police arrest – or encountering something worse. Its sprawling shantytown in northern Rio de Janeiro, home to around 60,000 mostly black and poor residents, has endured decades of violence between criminal gangs and police.

Last year, authorities announced they would install nearly two dozen surveillance cameras in the favela, heightening Jamila’s fears for her son. “I fear these cameras are being used against young men in the favela – many are already frequently targeted by the police for false motives,” said Jamila, 57, who asked that her surname not be used. because she feared reprisals.

“My son spent 30 days in juvenile detention in 2016 when he was mistaken for a criminal because of a fake photo ID. I fear it will happen again with these cameras,” she said to the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Rio police did not respond to a request for comment.

BUILT-IN BIAS? The global use of facial recognition has grown rapidly, despite its poor track record in identifying women and darker-skinned people.

In addition to solving crimes, accessing apps or monitoring borders, it is also used to target dissidents and activists from as far away as Iran to China. Bolsonaro signed a pair of decrees in 2019 aimed at creating a centralized database collecting the personal and biometric information of Brazil’s population of more than 200 million.

Subsequently, former Rio de Janeiro governor Wilson Witzel deployed facial recognition tools, saying they would help reduce the city’s rampant crime rate. Dozens of cameras were deployed in Copacabana during Carnival, then extended to other neighborhoods.

But the pilot project in Copacabana showed no reduction in crime, according to Panoptico. Cameras also misidentified suspects in more than half of arrests, Panoptico said, citing police data.

After a 2021 shooting in Jacarezinho left at least 25 people dead, police stepped up their use of surveillance, tracking license plate numbers and faces throughout the favela. Last year, hundreds of heavily armed police occupied the Jacarezinho neighborhood in a new security crackdown.

Facial recognition is part of the federal government’s plan to boost security in the favela, but there is little transparency about how the data will be used, said Dani Monteiro, president of the Human Rights Commission at the State Assembly of Rio de Janeiro. “We searched official journals, government websites and found nothing on them,” she said. “The program happened overnight, and it was only in the fine print that they mentioned the cameras.”

A spokesman for Rio Governor Claudio Castro said they had appointed a committee to oversee the use of cameras, but did not say whether they were responding to concerns from civil rights groups. ALGORITHMIC DISCRIMINATION

Around the world, facial recognition is increasingly being rejected, with several American and European cities banning its use and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights calling for a moratorium until safeguards are established. . Last year, a court in Sao Paulo ruled that the city’s metro must stop using facial recognition, giving a victory to rights groups who argued it hurt vulnerable citizens, especially young people. Blacks, due to its “algorithmic discrimination”.

Rio is forging ahead with new surveillance, installing smart streetlights equipped with WiFi and cameras. Of the 10,000 cameras, 40% have facial recognition, officials said. In Jacarezinho, four of the 22 cameras planned for the neighborhood will have facial recognition capabilities.

Many residents are unaware that their every move can be recorded, said Pablo Nunes, coordinator of Panoptico. Rio’s police are among the deadliest in Brazil, according to official data, and black people make up the majority of those killed by police across the country.

Cameras are therefore a volatile — and futile — addition to an already difficult environment, Nunes said. “In their own studies, they (the police) say they want to use these cameras to help defend police officers in court cases,” he said.

“There is no evidence that they help reduce crime or improve day-to-day policing,” he said. Originally posted at: https://www.context.news/surveillance/brazil-turns-facial-recognition-on-rioters-despite-racism-fears

(This story has not been edited by the Devdiscourse team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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