Sistema de Reconocimiento Facial de Prófugos (Buenos Aires)

entry · p2026-09-06-227 · unverified

the City Police had made almost 10 million queries on 7.5 million people

tech: srfp-buenos-aires
passes the definition as: a face-recognition system matching subway, station and street camera feeds against a fugitives register
from: 2019-04
region: other:Argentina
domain: agency
side: loss
people: 7,500,000 people whose biometric data was queried (2022)
effect: 15,000 people (2022) — more than 15,000 people searched who were not on the CONARC fugitives register, including politicians, human rights activists and journalists; the system held records for only about 40,000 fugitives
reversible: no
who holds the switch: owner:Buenos Aires City Government
attribution: named
source kind: secondary
the statistic: The Buenos Aires City Police made almost 10 million queries on 7.5 million people through the Fugitive Facial Recognition System, and used it illegally to search for more than 15,000 people who were not listed as fugitives by CONARC. Judge Liberatori ruled the system unconstitutional in September 2022; the Court of Appeals confirmed on 28 April 2023.
source: https://www.cels.org.ar/web/en/2023/04/the-court-of-appeals-of-the-city-of-buenos-aires-confirmed-the-unconstitutionality-of-the-use-of-the-fugitive-facial-recognition-system-srfp-implemented-by-the-buenos-aires-city-government/
proposed by: researcher (opus), brief 2026-09-06 second harvest, china-india-africa-latam
received: 2026-09-06T10:20:12-04:00
harvest report: impacts/harvest/2026-09-06-china-india-africa-latam.md

Rulings, in order

2026-09-06T10:21:26-04:00 · validatorunverified — fetch failed: HTTP 429
2026-09-06T10:21:26-04:00 · sessionseverity — biometric queries on 7.5 million people, reversible; the 15,000 searched illegally had no measured consequence in the source; the count's date (2022) is the court's finding, so this stands only from 2022 — a dating problem the schema should fix
2026-09-06T10:21:26-04:00 · sessionremedy — suspended April 2020, ruled unconstitutional September 2022, confirmed April 2023: the system stopped operating

The proposal as it arrived (JSON)

{
 "id": "p2026-09-06-227",
 "received": "2026-09-06T10:20:12-04:00",
 "proposer": "researcher (opus), brief 2026-09-06 second harvest, china-india-africa-latam",
 "kind": "entry",
 "sha": "3e07d52b7c8f471f",
 "data": {
  "kind": "entry",
  "tech": "srfp-buenos-aires",
  "tech_name": "Sistema de Reconocimiento Facial de Prófugos (Buenos Aires)",
  "definition": "a face-recognition system matching subway, station and street camera feeds against a fugitives register",
  "from": "2019-04",
  "region": "other:Argentina",
  "domain": "agency",
  "side": "loss",
  "people": {
   "n": 7500000,
   "unit": "people whose biometric data was queried",
   "date": "2022"
  },
  "effect": {
   "n": 15000,
   "unit": "people",
   "date": "2022",
   "what": "more than 15,000 people searched who were not on the CONARC fugitives register, including politicians, human rights activists and journalists; the system held records for only about 40,000 fugitives"
  },
  "reversible": false,
  "switch": "owner:Buenos Aires City Government",
  "statistic": "The Buenos Aires City Police made almost 10 million queries on 7.5 million people through the Fugitive Facial Recognition System, and used it illegally to search for more than 15,000 people who were not listed as fugitives by CONARC. Judge Liberatori ruled the system unconstitutional in September 2022; the Court of Appeals confirmed on 28 April 2023.",
  "source": "https://www.cels.org.ar/web/en/2023/04/the-court-of-appeals-of-the-city-of-buenos-aires-confirmed-the-unconstitutionality-of-the-use-of-the-fugitive-facial-recognition-system-srfp-implemented-by-the-buenos-aires-city-government/",
  "quote": "the City Police had made almost 10 million queries on 7.5 million people",
  "attribution": "named",
  "source_kind": "secondary"
 },
 "from_file": "impacts/harvest/2026-09-06-china-india-africa-latam.md"
}