The Interior Ministry’s continued use of facial recognition cameras against protesters in courts, particularly in the cases involving roadblocks, raises “serious privacy and legal concerns”, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association said. The watchdog said it has raised concerns about the unlawful collection and processing of personal data by the Ministry with the Personal Data Protection Service. The GYLA urges the Service to respond effectively to these concerns and ensure that surveillance practices comply with both national and international data protection standards.
The GYLA notes that surveillance cameras are often the only evidence used in such cases, with courts accepting images from the cameras as sufficient proof of guilt. However, the watchdog adds, the courts typically overlook critical legal questions, such as whether the individuals were identified properly or if the person responsible for the identification had the necessary access to protected databases as required by personal data protection laws. This approach is seen as a tactic to intimidate and control protesters, leading to a “chilling effect” on freedom of expression, the watchdog stresses.
GYLA further reports a recent case, which it says has brought to light the Ministry’s use of targeted surveillance. GYLA says it discovered that, in a video submitted as evidence from a January 2025 protest on Rustaveli Avenue, the Ministry had actively tracked an individual during the protest. The footage shows a camera following the protester in real-time, zooming in on a document the person was reading. GYLA says this reveals a clear instance of targeted surveillance, suggesting that a specific person or group of people are manually controlling the cameras.
By zooming in on specific documents held by the protester, the authorities accessed personal information that appears irrelevant to the criminal case, highlighting the invasive nature of this surveillance. “It remains unclear what legitimate purpose this serves”, especially when it has no connection to the alleged offense, the watchdog stresses. “This is aimed at instilling fear in the protestors that the state will not only identify them and impose a hefty fine, but also track them,” the GYLA notes.
The GYLA adds, that in a landmark ECtHR case (Glukhin v. Russia, no. 11519/20), the Court declared that the use of facial recognition technology in the context of freedom of expression is “incompatible with the principles of a democratic society governed by the rule of law.”
The organization says it had asked the Personal Data Protection Service to investigate whether proper privacy assessments had been carried out, whether surveillance activities are lawfully recorded, and whether security measures meet the required standards. Despite these requests, the service has yet to make a final decision on the matter.
The Personal Data Protection Service of Georgia responded to GYLA by stating that it is investigating the legality of the Public Safety Command Center’s use of surveillance cameras and the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ use of a special electronic program in administrative cases. The Service said that GYLA has been aware of the ongoing inspections since February and noted that it is not yet able to make preliminary assessments until the investigation is complete.
The growing network of surveillance cameras coincides with an increasingly authoritarian trend in the country, the brutal repression of protests and dissent, and the shrinking of civil liberties in Georgia. The number of cameras has reportedly increased exponentially, particularly at the sites of the ongoing popular protests, which have now passed the 100-day mark. The surveillance cameras have become an omnipresent feature of Georgia’s urban landscape, and of Tbilisi in particular, with issues such as who controls these cameras and what they are fully capable of remaining unclear.
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