Sir, – My sympathies lie with members of An Garda Síochána who are concerned about the interferences with their privacy, mental health and autonomy that arise from senior officers’ use of GPS tracking of their radios (”Gardaí leaving GPS radios behind amid “big brother” fears”, News, May 29th).
No employee should be subjected to such intrusive surveillance as has been facilitated by recent technological developments. The shift to remote working during the pandemic saw such technology deployed by many employers, which is extremely concerning. The Government’s promised legislation for remote working should be amended to provide protections for employee privacy.
More to the point, however, I trust gardaí similarly object to the use of facial recognition technology and other forms of intrusive digital surveillance by police forces against citizens, which has been shown to systematically violate civil liberties with no obvious operational benefits (Róisín Costello, “Why is the Government bucking the trend on facial recognition for policing?”, Opinion & Analysis, May 28th). – Yours, etc,
ALAN EUSTACE,
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Magdalen College,
University of Oxford,
United Kingdom.