The court allowed to monitor people through persons recognition systems

The Savelovsky District Court of Moscow allowed to monitor the Muscovites with the help of video cameras using the technology of person recognition, as this happens without interference in private life. This was reported by "Vedomosti" with reference to the motivation part of the court decision in the lawsuit of the civil activist Alena Popova.

A resident of Moscow appealed to the court with a demand to prohibit the recognition of persons with city video surveillance systems. Popova believes that the actions of the Moscow government are illegal, since the information that allows us to establish the identity of a citizen relate to biometric data. In addition, the authorities violate the articles of the Constitution of Russia, guaranteeing the right to private life. On November 6, the Savyolovsky court of Moscow rejected the lawsuit Popova.

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The motivating part of the court decision was published on November 25. It, in particular, says that the video surveillance system uses persons recognition technologies, but does not allow you to establish a person’s personality. The system only compares the image coming from video cameras with a photograph provided by law enforcement agencies. Algorithms can reveal a coincidence only with a certain degree of probability (65%), and personal data are not transmitted to the department. Therefore, video images cannot be considered biometric personal data, the court concludes.

• The person recognition system earned in Moscow in 2017. In May of this year, the mayor of the Russian capital, Sergei Sobyanin, announced the installation of two hundred thousand cameras in the city with the face recognition function. In case of implementation of the idea, the video surveillance system in Moscow will become the largest in the world after China.
• In the Moscow budget, for 2019, seven and a half billion rubles were allocated for the city video surveillance system, another 6 billion was staged by citywide data centers. Access to cameras, in addition to law enforcement agencies, was given the Federal Bailiff Service.