The private information for Argentina’s vp, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, was requested 226 occasions; President Alberto Fernández’s information was requested 76 occasions. Among these searched have been politicians from completely different events, human rights activists, and journalists. Gallardo started to analyze whether or not town created a database of photographs of all residents residing within the better Buenos Aires space.

D’Alessandro, then the safety minister, sits at a heavy picket writing desk sporting a go well with and tie, with a head of grey hair, the Argentine flag behind him. First, he emphasizes the advantages: “With facial recognition, we have caught almost 1,700 fugitives, including rapists and murderers with international arrest warrants. It allowed us to arrest people from other countries who were taking refuge here in Argentina under false identities.” He vehemently rejects the decide’s accusation of arbitrarily requested information. “This is about investigative procedures, about identity checks. When you enter a festival or a football stadium, for example, we have a program called Tribuna Segura (‘safe tribunes’) to make sure no criminals get in. No one, really no one, is searched by facial recognition without a court order.”

But why, for instance, was Vice President Cristina Kirchner searched greater than 200 occasions, generally in the course of the night time? “The vice president has a lot of criminal cases where she is accused, and the justice tells us with official documents to consult and validate the identity. The police work 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It may well be that data was queried at two in the morning.” Then he provides: “We have a transparent system, whoever logs in is registered. It is possible to trace who logged in from where and when, and what they were looking for.”

On this level, it is D’Alessandro’s phrase in opposition to Gallardo’s suspicions. The decide can solely show that the Ministry of Security requested thousands and thousands of units of non-public information, however not how that information was used or whether or not the ministry saved copies. The dispute may have ended right here if it weren’t for the report by police IT specialists who searched the computer systems of the Ministry of Security. In a politically polarized nation like Argentina, establishments such because the judiciary and the police don’t at all times perform independently. Fortunately, the IT auditors’ report was carried out and signed collectively by representatives of town police and the airport police. The metropolis police are subordinate to town mayor, the airport police to the federal authorities—each being at irreconcilable odds with one another. The cooperation gave the report added authenticity.

The report clearly exhibits that the traceability the minister is speaking about does not exist—and that the system might be manipulated. The IT specialists report says that “15,459 records were found in the facial recognition system that are NOT in the national database of individuals wanted for serious crimes. In other words, 15,459 persons were loaded into the facial recognition system without a request from the judiciary, i.e. without a legal basis for doing so.”

The forensic audit additionally discovered traces of 356 handbook information deletions together with the related log recordsdata, which means it’s inconceivable to know who was affected as a result of somebody, whoever it was, made a significant effort to delete not solely the info but in addition the traces of the deletion. Even worse: The identification of the one that deleted the info and the log recordsdata is unknown as a result of a number of person profiles “are not linked to the registration data of real persons and cannot be associated with a specific and determinable physical person,” the audit report says. It provides that 17 customers have administrator privileges. Because not less than six of the person accounts aren’t linked to actual identities, there isn’t a option to observe who is working the system and when. “The minister says that the system is automated and that it is not possible to enter biometric data sets manually. This is not true,” Gallardo says. “The experts have proven that the list of wanted persons can be changed. This gives system users the possibility to control individuals, including you or me, even in private life. When do we leave the house, when are we back?”