[D66] Germany’s plans for automatic facial recognition meet fierce criticism

[A.OUT]

https://www.euractiv.com/section/data-protection/news/german-ministers-plan-to-expand-automatic-facial-recognition-meets-fierce-criticism/

Germany’s plans for automatic facial recognition meet fierce criticism
By
Philipp Grüll
euractiv.com
4 min
View Original

Germany’s Interior Minister Horst Seehofer plans to use automatic facial 
recognition at 134 railway stations and 14 airports, according to a news 
report published on 3 January. Although official confirmation of the 
plan is still missing, an alliance between civil society and politicians 
has called for the banning of this surveillance technology. EURACTIV 
Germany reports.

According to DER SPIEGEL, Seehofer plans to equip 134 train stations and 
14 airports with cameras capable of automatically identifying people in 
crowds in a bid to expand Germany’s automatic facial recognition system.

Although the ministry has not officially confirmed the measures, a 
government spokesman, asked by EURACTIV, stated that an amendment to the 
Federal Police Act was planned to provide the police with “improved 
technical possibilities and, where possible and reasonable, extended 
responsibilities”.

And the corresponding draft law should currently be the subject of 
“internal governmental coordination”.

Call for a ban

But opposition to the plan is mounting. Viktor Schlüter, activist and 
founder of the “Digital Freedom” initiative, created the “Face 
Recognition Stop” alliance “to show that many people strongly doubt the 
effectiveness and usefulness of these proposals,” he explained to EURACTIV.

Activist groups such as Chaos Computer Club and epicenter.works, 
alongside the media outlet netzpolitik.org, and also politicians, such 
as members of Die Linke, are among doubters. On 9 January the group 
presented its demands to the government.

And they not only demand the alleged expansion of the facial recognition 
system planned by Seehofer to be stopped but also for a complete and 
final ban on automatic face recognition in public by the state.

Error-prone

What is their motivation? According to Schlüter, it is because the 
currently available technology remains underdeveloped and could lead to 
misidentifications, so-called “false positives”.

The interior ministry tested facial recognition cameras as early as 2018 
at the Berlin-Südkreuz station. The result was that 80% of the people 
were correctly identified.

“The systems have impressively proven themselves so that a broad 
introduction is possible”, Seehofer had said at the time.

But the Chaos Computer Club, an activist hacker association, did the 
math and accused the ministry of whitewashing. According to the 
association, such a figure could only be obtained if all three 
technology providers worked simultaneously and supported each other, as 
the hit rate for a single provider was only 68.5%.

It’s the SPD’s turn

The leader of the Social Democrats (SPD), Saskia Esken, also warned 
against such false positives and made it clear on Twitter on 4 January:

     Videoüberwachung mit Gesichtserkennung ist mE ein zu hoher Eingriff 
in die Freiheitsrechte. Die falsch positiven Fehlalarme schaden der 
Sicherheit mehr als die Überwachung ihr nutzt. Unschuldige Menschen 
geraten ins Visier. Ich will Digitalisierung sozial demokratisch gestalten!

     — Saskia Esken (@EskenSaskia) January 4, 2020

And with the bill in the hands of the SPD-led ministry of justice, the 
socialists will undoubtedly play a key role.

Schlüter, however, remains realistic. Although he is pleased with 
Esken’s positioning, Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht has “in the 
past sometimes not been so pro-foundationalist”, meaning he is concerned 
that the SPD could cave in.

This could still, however, be an opportunity, as “the SPD is looking for 
a profile,” meaning it could act “here and now”.

Moreover, discrimination could also become a problem. A study by MIT in 
cooperation with Microsoft showed that false positives are more common 
among women, children and people with dark skin. That would be 
system-inherent discrimination.

Last but not least, it is currently effortless to evade identification. 
Wanted persons would only have to turn their face 15 degrees away from 
the cameras or partially cover their faces to avoid being recognised.

Chilling Effect

Although such technical problems could be resolved in the future, 
Schlüter and his group would reject even a perfectly functioning face 
recognition system for the public, which is why they are calling for a 
definitive ban. And that is because of public surveillance, in general, 
has a so-called ‘chilling effect’, according to them.

“We see great danger in creeping self-restriction,” said Schlüter, 
noting that constant surveillance forces people to adapt their 
behaviour. He considers this to be unhealthy for democracies since 
citizens may shy away from political participation, knowing their faces 
are being stored in relevant databases.

No bad intentions

However, Schlüter made it clear that the government is not being 
malicious in its intent.

He acknowledged the deterring, rather than the preventative, effect of 
surveillance, noting that if one place is being monitored, handbags are 
stolen somewhere else.

But Interior Minister Seehofer sees it differently. After the 2018 
tests, he said facial recognition systems would “make police work even 
more efficiently, thus improving security for citizens”.

The ball is now in the SPD’s court.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic and Samuel Stolton]