Texas, Mexico plan biometric surveillance network. Privacy advocates are unimpressed

Mexico has begun building a 20-story biometric surveillance hub on its border with the United States.

Designs call for a sleek, glass tower in Ciudad Juarez, topped with a helipad, linked to surveillance systems and operations in 13 Mexican cities in the northern half of the country.

If successful, it could coordinate police and military operations fighting increasingly violent criminals and kidnappers. It might also spot immigration trends and coordinated regional criminal activities.

“If” is the key word. The nation is still working the knots out of a massive years-old video surveillance project in Mexico, even as a national politician pushes plans for the system to include more biometrics.

In the case of the Ciudad Juarez project, personal information reportedly will be shared with U.S. officials. This alone has some concerned about data security and personal privacy. A feature in many newer privacy services in the public and private sectors is keeping biometric data a local as possible to avoid theft and misuse.

And it is unclear what restrictions will be placed on the data. At least one Mexican politician, Chihuahua Gov. Maru Campos, says she is willing to share collected biometric data with Texas agencies and “commercial partners directly.” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has signed a memorandum of understanding to work with Mexican officials.

The program also will threaten the privacy of law-abiding residents, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an advocate for human rights online.

The EFF has posted a lengthy article outlining what it says it has learned about the Plataforma Centinela, or Sentinel Platform.

It has been described as a C7 operation, facilitating command, calculation, control, coordination, citizen contact, quality, communications and AI.

Ten thousand cameras mounted on structures (including 102 road arches), 40 video trailers and 74 drones will feed it faces and license plates to record and analyze live. Biometric and other data will be shared with 2,000 field officers carrying tablets.

The EFF describes the enterprise as something “monstrous,” with “tentacles,” and in fairness to the organization, the design’s sizzle reel ends with a startled flock of digital birds fleeing across a digitally darkening sky.

A Mexico security-infrastructure contractor, Seguritech, appears to be the prime contractor, and is working with the country’s State Public Security agency. According to the EFF, many important aspects of the project are classified. Seguritech also has been accused of improper business practices.

While Plataforma Centinela is in little danger of cancelation, the government can always promote a rarity in its defense – the resolution of serious numbers of missing people cases using digital personal data.

The nation’s electoral institute says that analysis of its data was used to find 21,266 missing persons. And 6,961 unclaimed bodies were identified and handed to their families for burial using biometric data.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  data privacy  |  EFF  |  facial recognition  |  Mexico  |  Texas  |  video surveillance