NHRCK Emphasizes the Importance of Proactively Addressing Human Rights Risks Posed by Facial Recognition Technologies
- NHRCK calls upon Speaker of National Assembly and Prime Minister to take legislative measures to prevent potential harm caused by facial recognition technologies -
On January 12 2023, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea(NHRCK) presented its recommendations to the Speaker of the National Assembly and the Prime Minister concerning the use of facial recognition technologies.
The NHRCK’s recommendations submitted to the Speaker of the National Assembly and the Prime Minister recognize the benefits of facial recognition technologies, which are being widely used across different sectors to effectively identify and classify individuals, but note with concern the potential threats that such technologies pose to the right to privacy, civil liberties and the rights to freedom of assembly and association. The NHRCK calls for introduction of laws to prevent a violation of these fundamental rights.
It is necessary to establish a legal framework that ensures the adoption and use of facial recognition technologies by the State based on the principles of respect for human rights, prohibits reckless use of such technologies, and permits their use only on public interest grounds in exceptional circumstances as a supplementary tool. In addition, the adoption and use of facial recognition technologies should be pursuant to individual and specific legal provisions.
The use of real-time remote facial recognition technologies by the State for a large number of people in public spaces should be banned in principle due to the high risk of violating fundamental rights.
It is crucial to evaluate potential human rights impacts before the development and use of facial recognition technologies, taking into account the amount of data required and the number of data subjects affected. A human rights impact assessment should also be conducted for technologies that are already being used if there is any substantial change to the purpose or content of these technologies. In order for a human rights impact assessment to be effective, an independent institution with human rights expertise should be hired to carry out the assessment.
The recommendations to that the Prime Minister include introducing a moratorium on the use of real-time remote facial recognition technologies by public agencies such as central government entities until the enactment of laws to prevent the risk of human rights violations.
Facial recognition technologies, for their high accuracy and immediate identification of persons, are being used for a wide range of applications, from identity checks to access control. The technologies are evolving rapidly on the back of advancements in artificial intelligence and algorithms.
However, if a State is allowed to freely use facial recognition technologies to collect and retain facial images of its citizens without being subject to any related regulations, it would be able to track down or monitor activities of individuals, leading to a violation of the rights to privacy and civil liberties. This will create a chilling effect on freedom of peaceful assembly and association in public spaces, thereby threatening the right to freedom of expression.
The United Nations Human Rights Committee and the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights noted that facial recognition technologies have the potential to infringe on the rights to freedom of privacy, assembly and association. In 2021, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed grave concern about human rights risks posed by real-time remote facial recognition, which can be used to track individuals in real time, and recommends that States suspend the use of this technology in public spaces. Several U.S. States like California have enacted a law banning police and public agencies from using facial recognition.
Some central and local government entities in Korea have adopted or tried to adopt facial recognition. In most cases, they have not measured potential impacts of this new technology on human rights and not even tried to inform the public of the development and introduction of such systems. This raised the need to regulate the use of of such large-scale systems which have the potential to violate human rights.
The NHRCK, in recognition of the need for legislative measures to regulate facial recognition systems, has decided to present recommendations and opinions on this topic to the Speaker of the National Assembly and the Prime Minister.
The NHRCK hopes that these recommendations help establish a legal basis to proactively address fundamental rights violations caused by facial recognition and will closely monitor social impacts of technological development to prevent indiscriminate use of new technologies with the potential to infringe on human rights.
