Regulating facial recognition in Latin America

The use of facial recognition technology in public spaces for police surveillance has seen a swift take-up across Latin America. Its adoption appears motivated by political considerations. In a region where fighting crime is perceived as a major challenge, adopting the technology is a means for governments to signal to voters their intent to enhance public safety. Police rollout of the technology, however, can lend itself to abuse. Depending on how it is deployed, facial recognition may threaten an individual’s right to privacy and, as a result, their rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and association. The technology can also undermine the right to non-discrimination and disrupt judicial due process by challenging the principle of presumption of innocence. Two case studies – the deployment in the city of Buenos Aires from 2019 to 2022, and a pilot run in São Paulo in 2020 – expose common trends in the adoption of this type of biometric technology in Latin America. Facial recognition is deployed, following obscure procurement processes, on weak legal grounds, without proper human rights assessments and with inadequate transparency. Deployments rely on the use of police databases which reinforce structural discrimination, and standards for data use are poorly defined and lacking in transparency. While other major jurisdictions, including the US, the UK and the European Union, are enacting strict safeguards to move towards exceptional use of facial recognition in public spaces by law enforcement, Latin America may be said to be caught in a worst-case scenario. While arguments for banning the technology are compelling – such as facial recognition’s potential role in exacerbating Latin America’s existing inequalities and structural discrimination – the enactment of more robust safeguards where technology is already in use is both a preferable scenario and a more likely way forward than the continued use of facial recognition with inadequate safeguards. This research paper argues that policymakers in Latin America should work on building stronger safeguards around police uses of facial recognition in public spaces. To ensure that deployments remain compliant with international human rights law, policymakers should ensure that authorized uses of facial recognition steer clear of ‘no-go’ zones such as the indiscriminate use of live facial recognition which was, until recently, commonplace in Buenos Aires. In addition, Latin American governments should offer opportunities for public debate about the potential impacts of the technology, particularly prior to engaging in new deployments.