It was recently reported that two states in Australia are facing trial concerning facial recognition software that allowed the police to check if people were at home during the lockdowns.

Indeed, the software was developed in 2020 by Genvis Pty Ltd alongside the WA state police in order to help ensure the lockdown restrictions were followed. It was stated that under the system being trialed, people had to respond to random check-in requests by taking a selfie at the quarantine address and if the data wasn’t verified by the software, the police could follow up with a visit to the location.

Not long ago, another facial recognition software had sparked a warning from privacy advocates around the world about potential surveillance overreach. Besides, the police forces have also shown their interest in using this kind of software in their line of duty, which led to a backlash from rights groups concerning the potential targeting of minority groups. They are also concerned about law enforcement agencies using people’s data for other purposes without anyone stopping them.

Hence, it was recently reported that the government of Western Australia has banned police from using data collected by COVID-related software for non-COVID matters.