News




People across Switzerland reclaim their faces and public spaces!

On 18 November, three of the organisations that have long championed the Reclaim Your Face campaign – Digitale Gesellschaft (CH), Algorithm Watch CH and Amnesty International (CH) – co-launched a brand new and exciting action in the fight to curtail the sinister rise of biometric mass surveillance practices across Europe!


Called ‘Gesichtserkennung stoppen’ (DE) / ‘Stop à la reconnaissance faciale’ (FR), this action calls on Swiss supporters to take a stand for human rights and oppose the expansion of facial recognition and related biometric mass surveillance in Switzerland.

The action, in the form of a petition, complements the long-running European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) run by the 65+ organisations in the Reclaim Your Face campaign. However, because EU laws limit those who can sign an ECI to those people who hold EU citizenship, our Swiss supporters have sadly been unable to make their opposition to a biometric mass surveillance society clear. Luckily, not any more!

The organisers explain why action is needed in Switzerland:

We have the right to move freely in public places without anyone knowing what we are doing. But automatic facial recognition allows us to be identified in the street at any time. We want to prevent such mass surveillance. Take a stand against automated facial recognition in public places in Swiss cities! Sign our petition today.”

So what are you waiting for? If you live or work in Switzerland, let the government know that you want to be treated as a person, not a walking barcode:

And if you do have EU citizenship (even if you’re a dual national) then you can give your voice legal weight by signing the ECI to ban biometric mass surveillance



ReclaimYourFace is a movement led by civil society organisations across Europe:

Access Now ARTICLE19 Bits of Freedom CCC Defesa dos Direitos Digitais (D3) Digitalcourage Digitale Gesellschaft CH Digitale Gesellschaft DE Državljan D EDRi Electronic Frontier Finland epicenter.works Hermes Center for Transparency and Digital Human Rights Homo Digitalis IT-Political Association of Denmark IuRe La Quadrature du Net Liberties Metamorphosis Foundation Panoptykon Foundation Privacy International SHARE Foundation
In collaboration with our campaign partners:

AlgorithmWatch AlgorithmWatch/CH All Out Amnesty International Anna Elbe Aquilenet Associazione Luca Coscioni Ban Facial Recognition Europe Big Brother Watch Certi Diritti Chaos Computer Club Lëtzebuerg (C3L) CILD D64 Danes je nov dan Datapanik Digitale Freiheit DPO Innovation Electronic Frontier Norway European Center for Not-for-profit Law (ECNL) European Digital Society Eumans Football Supporters Europe Fundación Secretariado Gitano (FSG) Forum InformatikerInnen für Frieden und gesellschaftliche Verantwortung Germanwatch German acm chapter Gesellschaft Fur Informatik (German Informatics Society) GONG Hellenic Association of Data Protection and Privacy Hellenic League for Human Rights info.nodes irish council for civil liberties JEF, Young European Federalists Kameras Stoppen Ligue des droits de L'Homme (FR) Ligue des Droits Humains (BE) LOAD e.V. Ministry of Privacy Privacy first logo Privacy Lx Privacy Network Projetto Winston Smith Reporters United Saplinq Science for Democracy Selbstbestimmt.Digital STRALI Stop Wapenhandel The Good Lobby Italia UNI-Europa Unsurv Vrijbit Wikimedia FR Xnet


Reclaim Your Face is also supported by:

Jusos Piratenpartei DE Pirátská Strana

MEP Patrick Breyer, Germany, Greens/EFA
MEP Marcel Kolaja, Czechia, Greens/EFA
MEP Anne-Sophie Pelletier, France, The Left
MEP Kateřina Konečná, Czechia, The Left



Should your organisation be here, too?
Here's how you can get involved.
If you're an individual rather than an organisation, or your organisation type isn't covered in the partnering document, please get in touch with us directly.