“Your software is my biology”: The mass surveillance system in Argentina

September 15, 2014 - by Flavia Fascendini and Florencia Roveri.

In 2011 Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner created, through an executive decree, a federal biometric system for the identification of citizens, named SIBIOS (Sistemaz Federal de Identificación Biométrica para la Seguridad). It was developed, according to the decree, to provide a centralised system of information regarding individual biometrics registers. This would be used for appropriate testing when identifying people and faces, optimising the investigation of crimes and supporting national security. The adoption of this measure involved very little – almost no – public discussion, except for a few civil society organisations that warned the government about the risks involved in these kinds of surveillance methods, and their implications for people’s right to privacy.