Survey finds majority of Swiss candidates against automatic facial recognition
A majority of the candidates in the federal elections in October reject automatic facial recognition in public spaces. Only the Swiss People’s Party candidates narrowly approve. This is the result of a survey.
Around 80% of the candidates for the House of Representatives and the Senate were in favour of a ban on facial recognition in public spaces in the Smartvote survey, as the “Protect fundamental rights – stop facial recognition” alliance of non-governmental organisations announced on Wednesday.
Among the candidates for the House of Representatives, 77.9% said yes or rather yes to a ban, and 83.9% for the Council of States. 52.7% of the House of Representatives and 55.2% of the Senate were clearly in favour of a ban.
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77.4% of the parliamentarians running for re-election were in favour of the ban, and 75.8% in the Senate. The support ranged from 90% for The Greens to over 60% each for the Radical-Liberal Party and The Centre. Only the Swiss People’s Party candidates were narrowly against a ban, with 51.5%.
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The Alliance includes the Swiss section of Amnesty International, Algorithmwatch CH and the Digitale Gesellschaft (digital society). 180 civil society organisations are calling for a worldwide ban on biometric mass surveillance in public spaces.
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