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Court throws out lawsuit seeking to ban Moscow’s facial recognition system

A lawyer representing the Department of Information Technologies told the court that the use of a facial recognition system did not violate people’s rights and was aimed at bolstering security

© Denis Voronin/MSK Agency

MOSCOW, November 6. /TASS/. Moscow’s Savelovsky District Court has rejected a lawsuit filed by public activist Alyona Popova, who sought to challenge the legitimacy of Moscow’s facial recognition system, a TASS correspondent reported.

"The Court hereby dismisses Popova’s lawsuit against the Moscow Department of Information Technologies and the Interior Ministry’s Main Directorate in Moscow," a judge announced.

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A lawyer representing the Department of Information Technologies told the court that the use of a facial recognition system did not violate people’s rights and was aimed at bolstering security. "The facial recognition technology is not prohibited by law, it is aimed at accomplishing the state’s open goals. The state has the right to use data protection tools as it deems necessary," the lawyer said.

According to the Moscow city government, video footage is collected only in public places, which is in line with the law. "There is no public access to the collected data, only law enforcement personnel, courts and lawyers have access. That said, there is a reasonable balance between people’s rights and state decisions," the department official emphasized.

Popova, in turn, claimed that the constitutional right to personal privacy was being violated. "I was shocked to learn that the Moscow authorities gathered our personal data, saving it in some database. I began to check out laws and realized that there was no legislation making it possible to introduce total surveillance over people in breach of their right to privacy, enshrined in Article 23 of the Russian Constitution," the plaintiff pointed out.

The Moscow Mayor’s Office said earlier that a mass facial recognition system had been put into operation in the Russian capital in 2017, which was intended to help the city authorities and law enforcement agencies guarantee security.

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