Protest Surveillance: What It Means for Your Rights

Additional resource for the lesson “Protest Surveillance: Effects on Rights and Civil Society” — Online Anonymity course

Protest surveillance is the use of cameras, facial recognition and social media monitoring around public demonstrations. It matters well beyond the day itself, because taking part in a peaceful assembly is a right, and being identifiable can change whether people feel free to use it. This resource explains what is used, what international bodies and courts have said about it, and how to prepare your own phone calmly and lawfully.

A. Why this matters

In this course, privacy means deciding what others know about you; anonymity means being able to act without what you do being tied back to who you are. A peaceful protest is one of the clearest places where the two meet. Walking in a march is a public act, yet many people take part as one face in a crowd rather than as a named individual.

That crowd has long offered a kind of everyday anonymity. Cameras that can identify faces automatically, phones that record where they have been, and photos posted within minutes all make it easier to connect one person to one event. None of this means you should stay at home; it helps to know which links exist, so that you can decide which ones you accept.

Rules on protests, recording in public and identity checks vary by country. This resource does not replace local legal advice, and nothing in it is about avoiding lawful instructions from the police.

What the sources say

In 2020 the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights published a report on new technologies and peaceful protests. It says that facial recognition at assemblies collects the images of everyone a camera captures, and that faulty identification can lead to undue interventions. It states that “Authorities should generally refrain from recording assembly participants”, with exceptions only where there are concrete indications of serious crime, and recommends that states “Establish a moratorium on the use of facial recognition technology in the context of peaceful assemblies” until they can show that privacy, accuracy and non-discrimination standards are met.

The same report describes authorities consulting social media before a demonstration, for example to estimate how many people will come, and warns that online surveillance can lead to harassment and self-censorship. It says that surveillance of protesters should be targeted, necessary and proportionate, and subject to judicial supervision.

In Europe, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2023 in Glukhin v. Russia. After a man held a solo demonstration in the Moscow metro, the Court accepted, in the particular circumstances of the case, that facial recognition had been used to identify him and later to find and arrest him there. The Court found violations of the rights to private life and freedom of expression, and said that such technology “could have a chilling effect in regard of the rights to freedom of expression and assembly.”

In the European Union, the AI Act now prohibits the use of real-time remote biometric identification in publicly accessible spaces for law enforcement, with narrow exceptions such as searching for missing persons or preventing an imminent threat to life. As of November 2026, the European Commission’s AI Act Service Desk shows this prohibition applying from 2 February 2025.

B. Key concepts: how protest surveillance works

Six ideas: what can link you to a demonstration, and why it matters beyond the people identified.

Cameras and recording

Demonstrations are often filmed: by fixed street cameras, by police, by journalists and by other participants. A recording on its own shows a crowd. It becomes a link to a person when someone can recognise a face in it, now or later.

Why it matters to you: Being filmed in a public place is not unusual, and in many countries it is lawful. What changes the picture is how long footage is kept and what is done with it afterwards.

Facial recognition: from a crowd to a list of names

Facial recognition is software that compares a face in an image with a database of known faces. Used live, it can check many faces at once as people pass a camera; used afterwards, it can search recorded footage. The UN report calls this a paradigm shift compared with ordinary recording.

Why it matters to you: This is the link that turns “someone in the crowd” into a named person. In the EU, real-time use for law enforcement in public spaces is now prohibited except in narrow cases; elsewhere, the rules differ widely.

Social media monitoring

Posts, event pages and group chats about a demonstration can be read by anyone who can see them, including authorities. The UN report describes social media being consulted before demonstrations, and raises concern about wider online monitoring of people who post about protests.

Why it matters to you: Your own posts, and the posts of people you go with, can say who was there, when and with whom, long after the day ends.

Your phone’s location history

A phone can keep a record of places it has been. Its location setting (Location Services on iPhone, Location on Android) lets apps ask for your position, and some services keep a history: Google describes Maps Timeline as “automatically saving your visits and routes”. Google says Timeline is off by default and only turns on if you opt in.

Why it matters to you: A location history ties your phone, and so usually you, to a place and a time. Knowing whether yours is on is the first step in deciding whether you want it on for that day.

Photos: what they carry and who is in them

A photo can carry hidden details, known as metadata, such as the place where it was taken. Apple explains that you can stop the Camera app from saving location, and that when sharing you can tap Options and turn Location off, so the share sheet shows “Location Not Included”. The people in the photo are a second kind of link: every identifiable face connects someone to the event.

Why it matters to you: You can make a choice about your own presence. When you post others’ faces, you are making that choice for them.

The chilling effect

A chilling effect is when people hold back from using a right, not because it is forbidden, but because they worry about being watched or identified. The UN report notes that many people feel discouraged from demonstrating; the European Court of Human Rights used the same idea in Glukhin.

Why it matters to you: Protest surveillance does not only affect the people who are identified. It can shape who feels able to show up at all, which is why courts and human rights bodies treat it as a matter for society as a whole.

C. A practical example: Marco’s first public march

Marco is 22, studies engineering and spends most evenings gaming online with friends. A group from his course is going to a peaceful march in the city centre on Saturday afternoon. It has been announced publicly, the route is agreed with the city, and Marco is looking forward to it.

On Friday evening, he notices a few things. His phone has had location turned on for months for a running app he no longer uses. His camera saves the location of every photo. His friends’ group chat is already planning to post “a big group selfie at the front”. And one friend mentions that a classmate would rather not appear online, because she prefers to keep her views offline.

Marco realises that, without deciding anything, he would leave three links to the day: his phone’s location history, the location stored in his photos, and his friends’ faces in a public post.

What changed when Marco prepared his phone

He spent fifteen minutes on the exercise in section D, the evening before:

• He turned off location access for the old running app and checked that Maps Timeline was off, as he had never opted in.
• He set the Camera app not to save location for the weekend, and checked how to share a photo without its location.
• He suggested to the group that the selfie be posted only to the private chat, and that anyone who did not want to appear could be left out or blurred.
• He wrote a friend’s phone number on paper and agreed a meeting point, in case the network was busy or his battery ran low.

He kept what mattered to him: taking photos, staying in touch with his friends and enjoying the day. He did not try to disappear from a public event; he chose which traces of it he wanted to leave.

D. Try it yourself: prepare your phone for a public event (15 minutes)

Five short steps, best done the evening before any public gathering. Nothing here is about avoiding lawful instructions; it is about deciding what your phone records and shares.

Step 1 — Decide what you need your phone for (2 minutes)

• Write down the two or three things you actually need on the day: messages to friends, a map, taking photos, a ticket.
• Note anything you do not need, such as fitness tracking or apps that share your location with friends.
• Keep the list short: it guides the next steps.

Step 2 — Check your location settings (4 minutes)

• On iPhone, open Settings › Privacy & Security › Location Services; on Android, open Settings › Location. You can switch location off entirely, or review it app by app.
• Turn off location for apps you do not need on the day, or set them to ask each time.
• If you use Google Maps, check whether Timeline is on. Google explains that you can turn it off or delete it in My Google Activity.

Step 3 — Prepare for losing your phone (3 minutes)

• Make sure your phone has a screen lock with a strong passcode. The EFF notes that device encryption, protected by a strong password, helps protect the data stored on it.
• Back up anything you would not want to lose, such as photos and contacts.
• Remember that airplane mode cuts your phone off from networks, and also from your friends: decide in advance whether you need to stay reachable.

Step 4 — Decide how you will take and share photos (4 minutes)

• Decide whether your camera should save location for the day. On iPhone, Apple’s path is Settings › Privacy & Security › Location Services › Camera; on Android, the option is usually in the camera app’s own settings.
• Find how to share a photo without its location. On iPhone, tap Options in the share sheet and turn Location off.
• Plan how you will handle other people’s faces. Two examples of tools: the blur tool in the Signal app, which detects faces on your own device (Signal notes that it can miss some, so check the result), or the crop and markup tools in your phone’s own photo editor, so that only consenting people remain.

Step 5 — Agree a simple plan with friends (2 minutes)

• Choose a meeting point in case you get separated or the network is busy.
• Write one important phone number on paper.
• Agree, as a group, where photos will be shared and who is happy to appear in public posts.

You are not making yourself unreachable; you are choosing what the day leaves behind.

E. Videos, articles and further resources

Human rights and legal sources first, then a civil society perspective, a practical guide and platform documentation. All in English.

Human rights and legal sources

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights — Impact of new technologies on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of assemblies, including peaceful protests (A/HRC/44/24)
The 2020 UN report on facial recognition, recording and online surveillance at protests, with its recommendations to states.
https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/g20/154/35/pdf/g2015435.pdf

European Court of Human Rights — Judgment concerning the Russian Federation: Glukhin v. Russia (4 July 2023)
The Court’s own summary of its judgment on facial recognition used against a peaceful protester, with links to the press release and the full text.
https://www.echr.coe.int/w/judgment-concerning-the-russian-federation-6

European Commission (AI Act Service Desk) — Article 5: Prohibited AI practices
The text of the AI Act’s prohibitions, including real-time remote biometric identification in public spaces for law enforcement and its exceptions.
https://ai-act-service-desk.ec.europa.eu/en/ai-act/article-5

Civil society

ARTICLE 19 — European Court of Human Rights: Groundbreaking ruling on facial recognition
A freedom of expression organisation explains the Glukhin case and why it matters for protest rights.
https://www.article19.org/resources/european-court-of-human-rights-groundbreaking-ruling-on-facial-recognition

Practical guide

Electronic Frontier Foundation — Surveillance Self-Defense: Attending a Protest
A detailed guide to preparing your phone, photos and plans for a protest, written mainly for the United States.
https://ssd.eff.org/module/attending-protest

Platform documentation

Apple Support — Manage location metadata in Photos
How to stop the Camera app saving location and how to share a photo without it.
https://support.apple.com/en-ie/guide/personal-safety/ips0d7a5df82/web

Google Maps Help — Manage your Google Maps Timeline
What Timeline saves, where it is stored and how to turn it off or delete it.
https://support.google.com/maps/answer/6258979

Signal — Blur tools for Signal
A 2020 announcement of the face blur feature in Signal’s image editor, which works on your own device and may miss some faces.
https://signal.org/blog/blur-tools/

Links checked in November 2026. If an address changes, searching for the title on the organisation’s site usually finds it.

F. The Cyber Welfare Framework: Skills, Awareness, Secure Behaviour

This resource sits on the Awareness pillar at level FL2 – Beginner: understanding what can link you to a public event before deciding what you want your phone and photos to say.

Skills

• Finding and changing location settings for apps and for the whole phone.
• Checking whether a location history such as Maps Timeline is on, and turning it off if you wish.
• Sharing a photo without its location, and blurring or cropping faces before posting.

Awareness

• Knowing that facial recognition can turn a crowd into a list of identifiable people.
• Understanding why human rights bodies and courts link the surveillance of protests to freedom of assembly and expression.
• Recognising that your photos can identify other people as well as you.

Secure Behaviour

• Preparing your phone the evening before a public event, not on the day.
• Asking for consent before posting identifiable photos of others.
• Following lawful instructions and knowing that rules vary by country.

G. Questions to sit with

• Which of the three links, your face, your phone or your photos, would you most want to manage before a public event, and why?
• If a friend did not want to appear in a group photo, how would you like your group to handle it?
• Where would you draw the line between the safety of a public event and the freedom to take part without being identified?

H. What to do now

The recommendations (R) and security measures (MS) from the Cyber Welfare database that apply most directly here.

1. Location

• R12 — Turn off Bluetooth and location when you are not using them: location you do not need on the day is a link you do not need to leave.
• Check whether your phone or maps app keeps a location history, and decide whether you want it on.

Minimum commitment: today, turn off location access for one app you no longer use.

2. Photos and other people

• R32 — Turn off photo geotagging: a photo without stored location says less about where you and others were.
• Ask before posting identifiable photos of other people, and blur or crop the faces of those who prefer not to appear.

Minimum commitment: before your next public event, find out how to share a photo from your phone without its location.

In short

• Protest surveillance links people to demonstrations through cameras, facial recognition, social media and their own phones.
• UN human rights bodies and the European Court of Human Rights have warned that facial recognition at protests can discourage people from using their rights.
• You can manage the links you control: your location settings, the location in your photos and the faces you post.
• Rules vary by country; prepare calmly, follow lawful instructions and respect other people’s choice not to appear.

Related resources in this course

• Mass Surveillance Explained: Who Collects Data and How
• Internet Censorship Around the World: How Blocking Works
• Age Verification and Anonymity: What Changes for You
• Remove Metadata from Photos Before You Share: A Practical Guide

Discover more companion resources from the online courses of the Protect Your Digital Privacy programme.