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. C onsisting of six cameras covering a public green area near the city's railway station, the system was ab le 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 p art 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. System 🤖 Documents 📃 Commune di Como Data Protection Impact Assessment (pdf) Operator: Comu ne di Como Developer: Huawei Country: Italy Sector: Govt - municipal Purpose: Detect loitering; Detect unattended packages; Identify cri minal suspects Technology: Facial recogn ition Issue: Accuracy/reliability; Transparency : Governance Legal, regulatory 👩🏼‍⚖️ Garante (2020). Provvedimento del 26 febbraio 2020 [9309458]

Date it happened

2020-06-01

Organisation involved

Comune di Como

This is a record of what was reported, not a finding that anyone broke the law. If it names your organisation and you believe it is wrong, the corrections process is free and open to everyone.