Portugal Proposed Law Tries To Sneak in Biometric Mass Surveillance (reclaimyourface.eu) 17
Whilst the European Parliament has been fighting bravely for the rights of everyone in the EU to exist freely and with dignity in publicly accessible spaces, the government of Portugal is attempting to push their country in the opposite direction: one of digital authoritarianism. From a report: The Portuguese lead organisation in the Reclaim Your Face coalition D3 (Defesa Dos Direitos Digitais) are raising awareness of how the Portuguese government's new proposed video surveillance and facial recognition law amounts to illiberal biometric mass surveillance. Why? Ministers are trying to secretly rush the law through the Parliament, endangering the very foundations of democracy on which the Republic of Portugal rests.
Eerily reminiscent of the failed attempts by the Serbian government just two months ago to rush in a biometric mass surveillance law, Portugal now asked its Parliament to approve a law in a shocking absence of democratic scrutiny. Just two weeks before the national Assembly will be dissolved, the government wants Parliamentarians to quickly approve a law, without public consultation or evidence. The law would enable and encourage widespread biometric mass surveillance -- even though we have repeatedly shown just how harmful these practices are. Reclaim Your Face lead organisation EDRi sent a letter to representatives of Portugal's main political parties, supporting D3's fight against biometric mass surveillance practices that treat each and every person as a potential criminal. Together, we urged politicians to reject this dystopian law.
Eerily reminiscent of the failed attempts by the Serbian government just two months ago to rush in a biometric mass surveillance law, Portugal now asked its Parliament to approve a law in a shocking absence of democratic scrutiny. Just two weeks before the national Assembly will be dissolved, the government wants Parliamentarians to quickly approve a law, without public consultation or evidence. The law would enable and encourage widespread biometric mass surveillance -- even though we have repeatedly shown just how harmful these practices are. Reclaim Your Face lead organisation EDRi sent a letter to representatives of Portugal's main political parties, supporting D3's fight against biometric mass surveillance practices that treat each and every person as a potential criminal. Together, we urged politicians to reject this dystopian law.
Huh? (Score:5, Interesting)
The Portuguese have EU IDs with bio-metrical data, fingertips and facial, just like all the EU passports.
The 'man' has already everybody's facial data, no need to go collect it illegally.
Re: (Score:3)
No, EU passports does not have that yet.
The US has demanded this for future passports, so all countries that want their citizens to be able to enter the US have to add biometric data in the future. But isn't in force yet.
Re: (Score:1)
The EU of course mandates this and does not give you any option to get a biometric- and chip-free passport.
bs.
Re: (Score:2)
No, it doesn't. Though most EU nations are considering adding it due to UK/US pressure. But it is not universal. And non of my two passports I got the last 10 years have had any of that.
Maybe your nation is doing something weird and is just blaming it on EU? It is pretty common. The easiest way to check is to see if other EU nations are different. In this case they are.
Re: (Score:2)
strange that my passport is an "eu passport" and doesn't have any of that. are you talking out of your ass?
Re: (Score:2)
you're from a laggard country
yes indeed, i'm from spain. :-)
or has the chip and you simply haven't noticed
or this. you are right, i stand corrected.
anyhow this is not a hill i would want to die for. that data has always been in passports, just not readable by a device a couple of meters away. i would be more worried by corporations and "authorities" having access to all sorts of tracking data and communications. e.g. if you own a cellphone today you don't have any privacy anymore in that regard, regardless of brand, country or what the "permissions" tab says.
Re: (Score:1)
If you don't like it (Score:2)
Illiberal? (Score:2)
Using whose definition of liberal?
Great Title! (Score:2)
The term "biometric mass surveillance" how are we defining mass surveillance here? Fingerprints and photos would have to be gained 'in the wild' rather than having you provide them with an application . . . is that the case?
"Sneak" --- baby, anything truly invasive or far-reaching governments march loudly through the front door and cry security and natio
Mass is a particularly useless biometric (Score:2)
Lots of people have the same mass so it won't do a good job of distinguishing between people.
People's mass chages over time - some people even do it on purpose - so it won't do aq good job of recognizing the same person.
oh... wait....