Expanding surveillance measures to police Russia’s coronavirus lockdown, including the use of facial recognition technology and collection of personal data, need regulating to ensure they are temporary and proportionate, two rights groups said on Thursday. Moscow, the epicenter of Russia’s outbreak, is in partial lockdown along with many of the country’s regions and the authorities are using and developing a range of technologies to monitor and regulate residents’ movements. Police say Moscow’s 178,000 facial recognition cameras had caught 200 people breaking coronavirus lockdown restrictions by mid-March.
