Challenges, victories and successes

 There have been a huge number of important victories against attempts by states and corporations to wield more power over individuals and society through digital technologies. Court cases in Europe have set limits on states’ ability to retain biometric data on individuals,¹ to retain information on peoples’ use of the internet and telephones,² and on the tracking and surveillance of air travel.³ Protest movements have halted the widespread use of facial recognition surveillance (notably in Belgrade⁴), the introduction of identity cards for the entire population (in the UK⁵), and the installation of extensive networks of CCTV cameras (in Greece⁶). Regulatory bodies have halted or limited the use of facial recognition cameras in public (in Italy⁷), the scraping of photos from the internet to power facial recognition software, and against the gathering of data from migrants and refugees to feed police databases (in Spain⁸).

Alternative digital technologies are also widely-used by individuals and organisations to protect their privacy and shield themselves from surveillance. Messaging apps such as Signal, email encryption through PGP, browsers such as Tor, and a multitude of other tools and apps have been developed that do not gather the swathes of personal data that are used by corporations and the state to profile and track individuals. Designers have even proposed forms of anti-surveillance clothing⁹ and makeup.¹⁰ These technologies and tactics provide huge benefits to journalists, lawyers, medical professionals, protest groups and campaigners. However, they often come under attack from the authorities and are still only used by a minority of the population. Often, the difficult of using them makes them unattractive to individuals, and legal changes to restrict the powers of states and corporations remains necessary to prevent the realisation of the intensive surveillance made possible by the digitalisation of the security state.

Notes

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1. https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-90051 ↩︎

2. https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2014-04/cp140054en.pdf ↩︎

3. https://edpb.europa.eu/our-work-tools/our-documents/statements/statement-implications-cjeu-judgment-c-81719-use-pnr-member_en ↩︎

4. https://edri.org/our-work/serbia-unlawful-facial-recognition-video-surveillance-in-belgrade/ ↩︎

5. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/identity-cards-are-to-be-scrapped ↩︎

6. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280574976_The_Super-Panopticon_Scandal_of_the_Athens_2004_Olympics_and_its_Legacy ↩︎

7. https://www.statewatch.org/news/2021/april/italy-interior-ministry-s-facial-recognition-system-is-unlawful/ ↩︎

8. https://elpais.com/espana/2023-09-26/el-defensor-del-pueblo-cuestiona-a-frontex-por-sus-interrogatorios-a-los-migrantes-recien-llegados-en-patera.html ↩︎

9. https://adam.harvey.studio/stealth-wear/ ↩︎

10. https://adam.harvey.studio/cvdazzle ↩︎