Incidents gathered from public reporting around the world. Each one links to the articles it came from. None of it is a finding that anyone broke the law.
Reports people file about their own experience are not shown here and never will be without their agreement. Tell us what happened to you.
44 incidents closest to “NeoFace Watch” · matched on meaning · public reporting
The system could identify strangers via smart glasses and collected biometric data from users and non-users without consent.
1 source article · read the reporting →
New Orleans police secretly used Project NOLA's facial recognition cameras to automatically alert officers to possible crime suspects, potentially violating a city ordinance requiring human review and disclosure. An investigation found the system played a role in dozens of arrests but its use was often not disclosed in police reports. The program was paused in April 2025 pending a review by the police superintendent. The ACLU has called for a permanent halt, warning of threats to privacy and civil rights.
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Harvard student Yuen Ler Chow created FaceTag, a facial recognition app that allows users to scan fellow students' faces to obtain their names and contact information. The app has raised privacy and ethical concerns among students and faculty, though Chow has implemented a permission feature to address some issues. No actual harm has been reported.
4 source articles · read the reporting →
Allegedly extracted biometric identifiers from photographs without consent to train facial recognition and generative AI systems
1 source article · read the reporting →
AI facial recognition — Wrongful Arrest Leads to $10M Lawsuit The Korea Daily
1 source article · read the reporting →
بسبب «الذكاء الاصطناعي».. جدة تقاضى الشرطة بـ10 ملايين دولار بعد 6 أشهر خلف القضبان بأمريكا - المصري اليوم
A Tennessee grandmother was wrongly arrested based on AI facial recognition and spent six months in jail for bank robberies she did not commit. After her bank records proved she was in Tennessee during the crimes, the charges were dropped. She is suing the police for $10 million, alleging they relied on the faulty technology without proper investigation.
1 source article · read the reporting →
Hangzhou police have cracked a case in which a gang allegedly used an overseas multimodal AI model to create face-swapped videos that defeated facial-recognition login checks on major platforms. The group is accused of stealing users' photos, generating videos of actions such as blinking or turning the head, and then accessing victims' accounts to collect personal information, which was sold to fraud gangs for nearly 200,000 yuan. Four suspects were arrested in Anhui, Guizhou and Zhejiang in August and placed in criminal detention. Police warned the public to manage personal information securely and urged platforms to strengthen facial authentication.
1 source article · read the reporting →
Two Harvard students built a system called I-XRAY that uses Meta's Ray Ban smart glasses and the facial recognition service Pimeyes to automatically identify strangers and retrieve their personal information, including name, phone number, and home address. The students tested the system on unsuspecting people in public to demonstrate the privacy risks. They are not releasing the code.
6 source articles · read the reporting →
Lockport City School District deployed SN Technologies' AEGIS face and weapons detection system in January 2020. Parents and the New York Civil Liberties Union allege the system misidentifies Black people more often than white people and falsely detects weapons such as broom handles. A lawsuit was filed against the New York State Education Department seeking to ban facial recognition in schools. SN Technologies denied misleading the district.
1 source article · read the reporting →
The face-swapping app Facemega, owned by Chinese company Wondershare, promoted a sexually suggestive advertisement featuring the face of actor Emma Watson without her consent. The ad, which showed a woman with Watson's face in a provocative pose, ran on Facebook until it was removed following media coverage. Apple and Google also removed the app from their stores for policy violations. An attorney commented that such deepfake technology could be used as a weapon against women, highlighting the potential for reputational and privacy harms.
5 source articles · read the reporting →
The UK Court of Appeal ruled that South Wales Police's use of Automated Facial Recognition (AFR) technology, known as AFR Locate, was unlawful and violated human rights. The court found that the legal framework gave officers too much discretion over watchlists and deployment, and the data protection impact assessment was inadequate. Civil liberties campaigner Ed Bridges brought the judicial review, alleging the technology was unlawfully intrusive. The court upheld the appeal on grounds of legality, data protection, and equality duties, and South Wales Police stated it would not appeal the decision.
8 source articles · read the reporting →
Hikvision, a Chinese surveillance company, sold a facial recognition system powered by NVIDIA to authorities in the People's Republic of China. The system is designed to identify Uyghur individuals, enabling ethnic profiling and surveillance. The article reports that the system was marketed as a tool for public security and was deployed without transparency or accountability. No specific incident of harm is described, but the potential for widespread discrimination and human rights abuses is highlighted.
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Chinese police in Zhengzhou used sunglasses equipped with facial recognition technology to scan crowds and identify suspected criminals. The glasses are connected to an internal database, and officers received information about matches. The technology has helped capture seven suspects and identify 26 people using fake IDs. Critics fear the system could be used to track political dissidents or profile ethnic minorities.
9 source articles · read the reporting →
Francisco Arteaga was charged with armed robbery in 2019 after facial recognition technology used by West New York police matched his mugshot to surveillance footage. He denied involvement and had an alibi, but was detained for nearly four years. A state appellate court ruled in 2023 that he was entitled to information about the technology, but prosecutors said they could not provide it because the match was made by the NYPD. Arteaga ultimately pleaded guilty to secure his release, and advocates say the case highlights the lack of transparency and regulation around police use of facial recognition.
1 source article · read the reporting →
Niulanshan First Secondary School in Beijing has installed Hanwang Technology's Classroom Care System, which photographs students every second and analyses their facial expressions and behaviour. The system sends weekly reports to teachers and parents, and one student was described as low participation in English class despite being recorded as focused 94% of the time. The school has been highlighted in a report by Article 19, which says such emotion recognition tools rely on junk science and risk eroding privacy and human rights.
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University used a convolutional neural network to classify facial photographs of 1,856 Chinese men aged 18 to 55, half of whom were criminals, and reported 89.5% accuracy in distinguishing criminals from non-criminals. The study, published on arXiv, identifies facial features the network relied on and raises ethical concerns about potential misuse in pre-crime surveillance. No deployment or actual harm is reported.
8 source articles · read the reporting →
In early 2024, Black British activist Shaun Thompson was detained by Metropolitan Police at London Bridge station after live facial recognition technology wrongly identified him as a suspect. He was held for nearly 30 minutes before being released after showing his passport. Thompson has launched a legal challenge seeking a judicial review of the technology's use, alleging it is intrusive and treats people as guilty until proven innocent. The Metropolitan Police declined to comment.
3 source articles · read the reporting →
Amnesty International's research found that NYPD's facial recognition cameras are disproportionately concentrated in non-white neighborhoods across New York City, particularly the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens. The communities most targeted by stop-and-frisk policing are also more exposed to this surveillance, which Amnesty calls a 'digital stop-and-frisk'. The NYPD used facial recognition in over 22,000 cases between 2016 and 2019, and refused to disclose records about its acquisition and use of the technology. Amnesty International has sued the NYPD and is calling for a ban on facial recognition for mass surveillance.
1 source article · read the reporting →
Chinese police departments in multiple provinces have deployed facial recognition systems from AI companies such as Yitu, Megvii, SenseTime, and CloudWalk to identify and track Uyghur people, a Muslim minority. The systems scan crowds and trigger alerts when a Uyghur individual is detected, enabling targeted surveillance across cities including Hangzhou, Wenzhou, and Sanmenxia. Documents and interviews show that one system in Sanmenxia conducted over 500,000 screenings in a month, flagging thousands as Uyghur. Police use this technology to monitor and control the Uyghur population, who have been subjected to mass detention and other repressive measures. The article reports these practices from interviews with anonymous sources and procurement documents.
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Chinese technology companies CloudWalk and Huawei have supplied facial recognition systems to the governments of Zimbabwe and Uganda for law enforcement and administration. The systems are alleged to be inaccurate for dark-skinned individuals, potentially leading to false positives and unwarranted surveillance. Digital rights advocates warn that these systems could exacerbate civil liberties abuses in countries with weak legal protections. The use of these technologies is part of China's growing geopolitical influence and corporate expansion in Africa.
10 source articles · read the reporting →
In December 2019, Kneron researchers tested facial recognition systems at a high-speed rail station in China, Schiphol Airport, point-of-sale terminals, and a mobile phone. Using a high-quality 3D mask and a photo on a phone screen, they successfully deceived the systems, gaining access and making purchases. The survey highlighted security shortfalls in many commercial facial recognition solutions.
10 source articles · read the reporting →
A video posted on Reddit shows Apple's Face ID unlocking an iPhone X for a sibling who was not the enrolled user, after he put on glasses similar to his brother's. The system had been set up by the other brother, and the video demonstrates that Face ID can be fooled by siblings with similar facial features. Apple has acknowledged that Face ID may be less secure for siblings with similar appearances.
9 source articles · read the reporting →
The Zao face-swapping app, developed by Momo, sparked privacy and fraud fears after its launch in China on 29 August 2019. The app's terms and conditions initially gave the developer permanent rights to use users' images, which experts said broke Chinese law. Momo subsequently apologized and deleted the controversial clause. Alipay assured users that deepfakes could not bypass its facial recognition payment system.
10 source articles · read the reporting →
The FindFace facial recognition app is being used by users of the Russian website Dvach to identify porn actresses and sex workers from images and match them to their VKontakte accounts. The users then spam the victims' families and friends with the information, aiming to out them. Several victims complained to FindFace, but the founder stated there was no way to prevent the misuse.
7 source articles · read the reporting →
