Reclaim Your Face: Ban Biometric Mass Surveillance!

The future must be ours to shape.

Facial recognition can and will be used against each of us by governments and corporations - based on who we are and what we look like.

Reclaim our public space. Ban biometric mass surveillance!

Sign the petition for a new law now

56,267 have already signed. Help us get to 1 million!
The EU has the power to end these abusive practices.

European Citizen's Initiative

Reclaim your Face

Why are we asking for your personal data to sign the ECI petition?

This is not a regular petition, but an official "European Citizens' Initiative" (ECI). This means your signature must be officially verified by national authorities, according to each EU country's specific rules. We cannot control the data that they require, since it is required by Regulation (EU) 2019/788 on the European citizens’ initiative for the purpose of confirming your signature. We can only use the information that you provide in Step 2 to contact you with updates, if you choose to enter it. Furthermore, our ECI signature collection system has been verified by the German Federal Information Security Office (BSI) to ensure it is compliant with the EU's Regulation on ECIs. Please see our "Why ECI?" page for further details, and check out our privacy policy.

Who can sign this ECI petition?

This ECI is open to all EU citizens, even if you currently live outside the EU (although there are special rules for Germany). Unfortunately if you are not an EU national, the EU's official rules say that you cannot sign. Check back soon for other ways than non-EU citizens can help the cause.

Are you a German citizen living outside of the EU?

It is possible to sign our ECI petition if you live outside the EU, but German rules mean that for German citizens specifically, your signature will only be valid if you are registered with your current permanent residence at the relevant German diplomatic representation. If you are not registered, then unfortunately your signature will not be counted. You can read more information about the rules. This rule does not apply to citizens of any other EU country.

How many signatures have been submitted from each country so far?

See the stats on our "Why ECI" page.

What is it?

Biometric data are bits of data that are unique to our bodies and behaviours, which divulge sensitive information about who we are. For example, our faces can be used for facial recognition to make a prediction or assessment about us – and so can our eyes, veins, voices, the way we walk or type on a keyboard, and much more.

Governments, police forces and corporations use recording devices (like CCTV cameras) and facial recognition software to gather our biometric data. This means they can track us from one place to another using our unique characteristics to permanently identify each of us. This blanket capture of every person’s biometric data in public spaces like streets, parks, train stations, shops or sports venues simply for trying to live our lives is biometric mass surveillance. It treats us all as walking barcodes.

Should an employer use your facial expressions to decide if you’re fit for a job?

We want to be treated by our employer based on our work, not our face or body.

Should the police put you on a list of suspicious people based on the way you walk?

We want the police to treat us with decency and respect, not as criminal suspects.

Should a shop only show you products based on their assumption of your gender or ethnicity?

We want to have have choice over what we buy, not be manipulated or discriminated against by big businesses.

Should a hospital refuse to let you visit a relative because you went to a protest when you were younger?

We want to be able to speak freely and document injustice, not to self-censor because we are constantly watched.

Should a university deny you a place on your favourite course because of the people you meet up with?

We want to choose our education freely, regardless of where we come from or who our friends are.

Should your car insurance increase your premium because of the way you dress?

We want to have control over our data, not to be exploited by corporations abusing our identities to make money.

The future must be ours to shape. Our lives must be ours to decide.

Privacy is power

Surveillance is money

Reclaiming our futures

In today’s world of always being “on”, the power to decide when we do and when we don’t share our sensitive information is vital. Our privacy is a condition for enjoying our freedoms in public spaces and public life: it’s what gives us the ability to join together, raise our voices and live as we choose.

Our personal lives matter – that’s why we don’t share our email passwords, leave our front doors unlocked, or why we get to vote behind a screen. It allows us to make sure that powerful governments don’t use our data to target us or that powerful corporations do not manipulate our preferences. Privacy gives us the confidence to go to the doctor, to express who we are proudly, or to speak up boldly and take action when someone is being treated unfairly. The freedoms that come with privacy help us go about our lives without constantly having to look over our shoulder, or feeling that we have to conform to someone else’s labels.

Police forces trying to cut corners. Politicians manipulating our votes to push authoritarian agendas. Corporations making huge sums of money from watching us (often known as “surveillance capitalism”). They are working together to follow us as we move about in our towns and cities.

By tracking us through biometric surveillance, these powerful actors can instantly match our face – or other body parts – to massive amounts of information about us. Huge databases about our interests, activities and personal networks can be combined with new information about our faces, bodies, where we go and what we do. From this, they claim to know what we are thinking, how we are feeling or what we might be about to do next – even though there is no reliable scientific basis for this.

We've seen it already

Cambridge Analytica suppressing voters in the UK and US. Peaceful protesters and students monitored with illegal police drones in France. Commuters treated as suspects in Germany. Political opponents attacked and silenced in Honk Kong. People of colour traumatically falsely arrested in the US. It’s gone too far already - but we can put a stop to it now.

Choices and opportunities about our futures will be taken away from us simply for being who we are. We must fight back against the powerful governments and corporations and make sure that technology truly works for all of us; not for the greed, and control of the powerful few.

Under constant biometric mass surveillance, our faces and bodies expose us to the manipulation and impulses of authorities and companies. We are watched and judged based on how we look. We become anxious, less comfortable and less free to be ourselves. Evidence shows that they put us into boxes based on how they perceive our ethnicity, our gender, our age and more. They claim to know what we are doing or thinking by how we swing our arms, the shape of our head or the look on our face. We don’t even know that these unfair and often discriminatory assumptions are being made about us.Yet they will be permanently linked to our faces and our bodies, forever, wherever we go.

Once you are watched and categorised like this, your future can be decided for you

It will dictate the adverts that you will you see or not see on a “smart” billboard. You could be considered a trouble-maker in the eyes (and the official watch-lists) of the police. The way you dress, look or act today, the places you go to and the people you associate with, could become a barrier for employment, education or travel tomorrow. Your future freedom can be taken away simply for being who you are.

A ban on biometric mass surveillance is the only solution for a future where our choices are made by us, not by algorithms.

See the evidence for yourself

Who’s saying what about biometric mass surveillance?

"We will wake up one day and find that the terror of mass surveillance is far more severe than any terror we have ever seen."

- RYF supporter
"I want to be able to walk the streets [...] without fear of surveillance that would make Stalin jealous"

- RYF supporter
"Revolutions that we have seen across the world in modern times from Tiananmen Square to the Arab Spring would not have been possible with biometric mass surveillance of the public space"

- MEP Karen Melchior, Renew
"Millions are given to private facial recognition companies to develop their tech with public money without any democratic debate or consideration for basic humans rights"

- RYF supporter
“As a software developer [...] I see the industry will not regulate itself."

- RYF supporter
“I feel responsible as a citizen to act."

- RYF supporter