Reboot of Buenos Aires facial recognition plan fuels privacy fears

NGOs fear a controversial facial recognition system – dubbed Buenos Aires’ Big Brother – could be revived, threatening rights. — Image by rawpixel.com on Freepik

BUENOS AIRES: After a relaxing weekend away, Guillermo Ibarrola was walking out of a train station in Argentina’s capital when police arrested him and accused him of a robbery committed hundreds of miles away in a place he had never visited.

“It was a nightmare,” Ibarrola told local media after the 2019 incident, which rights campaigners say highlights the risks of using facial recognition systems to survey populations.