We, the undersigned, call for an outright ban on uses of facial recognition and remote biometric recognition technologies that enable mass surveillance and discriminatory targeted surveillance. These tools have the capacity to identify, follow, single out, and track people everywhere they go, undermining our human rights and civil liberties — including the rights to privacy and data protection, the right to free assembly and association, freedom of expression, and the rights to equality and non-discrimination.
These uses of facial and remote biometric recognition technologies, by design, threaten people’s rights and have already caused significant harm. No technical or legal safeguards could ever fully eliminate the threat they pose, and we therefore believe they should never be allowed in public or publicly accessible spaces, either by governments or the private sector.
Read the full letter below:
Signers
This statement was drafted by Access Now, Amnesty International, European Digital Rights (EDRi),
Human Rights Watch, Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), and Instituto Brasileiro de Defesa do
Consumidor (IDEC).
Organizations
#SeguridadDigital (Mexico)
Aapti Institute (India)
Ação Educativa (Brazil)
Access Now (Global)
AI for the People (US)
AI Now (US)
AlgorithmWatch (Germany)
AlgorithmWatch (Switzerland)
All Out (Global)
Alternative Informatics Association (Turkey)
ALTSEAN-Burma (Myanmar)
ApTI (Romania)
AqualtuneLab (Brazil)
Article 21 Trust
Article 21 Trust (India)
Artists Against the Occupation (Global)
Asociación por los Derechos Civiles (ADC) (Argentina)
Associação Data Privacy Brasil de Pesquisa (Brazil)
ATTAC (Japan)
BDS Tokyo (Japan)
Big Brother Watch (UK)
Brazilian Bar Association, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
Bringing Back Peace and Love to Childrens’ Education (Japan)
Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (US)
Center for Civil Liberties (Ukraine)
Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law at NYU (US)
Centre for Free Expression, Ryerson University (Canada)
Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS) (Argentina)
Centro de Estudos de Segurança e Cidadania (CESeC) (Brazil)
CESeC – Centro de Estudos de Segurança e Cidadania (Brazil)
Chaos Computer Club (Europe)
Chaos Computer Club (Luxembourg)
Citizen D (Slovenia)
CIVICUS/INSPIRIT Creatives NGO (Global)
Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Europe)
Codamos (Brazil)
Código Sur (Latin America)
Coding Rights (Brazil)
Coletivo Digital (Brazil)
Colombian Campaign to Ban Landmines (Colombia)
Conexão Malunga (Brazil)
Cooperativa Sulá Batsú (Costa Rica)
Cosmopolitan Affirming Community (Kenya)
Cryptoparty Ann Arbor (US)
D3 – Defesa dos Direitos Digitais (Portugal)
Data Labe (Brazil)
Data Privacy Brazil Research (Brazil)
Dataful (Bangladesh)
Derechos Digitales, América Latina (Latin America)
Digital Empowerment Foundation
Digital Empowerment Foundation (India)
Digital Rights Foundation (Pakistan)
Digital Rights Kashmir (Kashmir)
Digital Rights Watch (Australia)
Digitalcourage (Germany)
Digitale Gesellschaft (Switzerland)
Digitale Gesellschaft (Germany)
DITSHWANELO (The Botswana Centre for Human Rights) (Botswana)
Doctors with Disabilities: Agents of Change (India)
EchoEchanges (France)
European Centre for Non-Profit Law (Europe)
Electronic Frontier (Finland)
Electronic Frontier (Norway)
Electronic Privacy Information Center (US)
Empowering Freedom Defenders in East & Southeast Asia (Regional)
Equal Asia Foundation (Thailand)
Espacio Público (Venezuela)
Ethics in Tech (US)
Eurasian Digital Foundation (Regional)
European Public Service Union (Europe)
Extinction Rebellion (Philippines)
FIDH – International Federation for Human Rights (Global)
Fight for the Future (US)
Fitug e.V. (Germany)
Fundación Acceso (Costa Rica)
Fundación InternetBolivia.org (Bolivia)
Giordano-Bruno-Stiftung (Germany)
Harm Reduction International (Global)
Hasgeek (India)
Health, Ethics and Law Institute of Forum for Medical Ethics Society (India)
Hiperderecho (Peru)
Hivos (Global)
Homo Digitalis (Greece)
Human Constanta (Belarus)
Human Rights Defenders’ Alert (India)
Human Rights Watch (Global)
Idec – Brazilian Institute for Consumer Protection (Brazil)
iLaw (Thailand)
Immigrant Defence Project (US)
Indian Kanoon (India)
Indigenous Friends Association (US)
info.nodes (Italy)
Instituto Alana (Brazil)
Instituto Beta: Internet & Democracia (Brazil)
Instituto Brasileiro de Análises Sociais e Econômicas (Brazil)
Instituto de Pesquisa em Direito e Tecnologia do Recife (IP.rec) (Brazil)
Instituto Marielle Franco (Brazil)
Instituto para la Sociedad de la Información y Cuarta Revolución Industrial (Peru)
International Legal Initiative (Kazakhstan)
Internet das Pessoas (Brazil)
Internet Freedom Foundation (India)
Internet Protection Society Russia
InternetLab (Brazil)
Intersection Association for Rights and Freedoms (Tunisia)
Intervozes – Coletivo Brasil de Comunicação Social (Brazil)
IPANDETEC (Panama)
Iraqi Network for Social Media (INSM) (Iraq)
Irish Council for Civil Liberties (Ireland)
Istanbul Legal Hackers (Istanbul)
Iuridicum Remedium (IuRe) (Czechia)
Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, Mumbai (India)
JCA-NET (Japan)
Justice for Iran (UK)
Justice for Kids (Japan)
Kenya Human Rights Commission (Kenya)
Korean Progressive Network Jinbonet (South Korea)
La Ligue des Droits de l’Homme (France)
La Quadrature du Net (France)
Lab404 – FACOM-UFBA (Brazil)
Laboratório de Políticas Públicas e Internet (Brazil)
Lady Lawyer Foundation (Italy)
LaLibre.net Tecnologías Comunitarias (Ecuador)
Lawyers’ Rights Watch (Canada)
Liberty (UK)
Liga voor de Rechten van de Mens (The Netherlands)
Masaar-Technology and Law Community (Egypt)
Mawjoudin for Equality (Tunisia)
Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (India)
Media Alliance (US)
MediaJustice (US)
MediaLab UFRJ (Brazil)
Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (Canada)
Movimento Mulheres Negras Decidem (Brazil)
Movimento Mulheres Negras Decidem (Brazil)
National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled (India)
nemox.net (Austria)
Net Freedoms (Russia)
Observatory of Journalistic Ethics (OBJETHOS) (Brazil)
Ong AFRICANDO (Regional)
Open Media (UK)
PDX Privacy (US)
PEN (Myanmar)
People’s Watch (India)
Pirate Party (Switzerland)
Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (Europe)
Povod Institute (Slovenia)
Privacy International (UK)
Privacy Network (Italy)
Progetto Winston Smith (Italy)
Public Citizen (US)
Punjab Women Collective (India)
Quintessenz (Austria)
Rebelión o Extinción (Global)
Rede latino-americana de estudos sobre vigilância, tecnologia e sociedade – LAVITS (Brazil)
Roskomsvoboda (Russia)
Selbstbestimmt.Digital e.V. (Germany)
Setor W (Brazil)
Share Foundation (Serbia)
Simply Secure (US)
Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFEnet) (Indonesia)
Statewatch (UK)
Stop Wapenhandel (The Netherlands)
Strali (Italy)
SumOfUS (Global)
Sursiendo, Comunicación y Cultura Digital (Mexico)
Swathanthra Malayalam Foundation (India)
Taiwan Association for Human Rights (Taiwan)
Taraaz (US)
Teplitsa (Technologies for Social Good) (Russia)
The Bachchao Project (India)
The Good Lobby (Italy)
The Italian Coalition for Civil Liberties and Rights (Italy)
The Public Sphere Project (US)
Usuarios Digitales (Ecuador)
Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) (France)
Vrijschrift.org (The Netherlands)
World Ethical Data Foundation (Global)
Zeitschrift Bürgerrechte & Polizei (CILIP) (Germany)