The ECHR recognized that the facial recognition system in Moscow violates the right to privacy

The ECHR examined the case of Muscovite Nikolai Glukhin and found that the Moscow facial recognition system violated his right to privacy. The corresponding decision was published on the court's website.

On August 23, 2019, Glukhin was riding on the subway with a cardboard figure of Konstantin Kotov, who was subsequently sentenced to four years in prison under the “Dada article.” The figure was holding a poster: “Aren’t you crazy? I am Konstantin Kotov, I face up to 5 years for peaceful pickets.” A week later, employees of Center “E”, who found Glukhin’s photo in telegram channels, came to his apartment, but did not find the activist at home. On the same day, the man was detained at the exit from the subway.

The police drew up a report against the Muscovite for violating the rules of holding a rally (Part 5 of Article 20.2 of the Administrative Code). The security forces told Glukhin that they had tracked him using surveillance cameras with a facial recognition system. In September of the same year, the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow fined Glukhin 20 thousand rubles.

The court ruling stated that a Muscovite was traveling in a train carriage on the Lyublinsko-Dmitrovskaya metro line and, “attracting the attention of citizens and the media, demonstrated a prefabricated prefabricated structure with him in size <…> in the form of a model of a person holding in his hands propaganda material." Glukhin appealed the decision, but the Moscow City Court upheld it.

The ECtHR concluded that the actions of the security forces and the search for Glukhin using a real-time facial recognition system violated his right to respect for private life and freedom of expression (Articles 8 and 10 of the Human Rights Convention) and did not correspond to a “urgent social need.” Muscovite was awarded 16.2 thousand euros in compensation. In making its decision, the court referred to a report by the human rights project OVD-Info on how authorities use facial recognition against protesters.

In March 2022, Russia was expelled from the Council of Europe. A few months later, Vladimir Putin signed a law on non-execution of ECHR decisions made after March 15, 2022. Russia officially ceased to be a member of the European Convention on Human Rights in September.