Amnesty International on Aug. 19 accused Argentina of putting in place a "techno-authoritarian" surveillance infrastructure without adequate legal safeguards, as the government's newly created AI security unit expands state monitoring powers over citizens' online communications and physical movements.

In a new report, the rights group stated that Argentina's Ministry of Security spent at least $1.2 million on surveillance technology between 2024 and 2025, including social media monitoring tools, facial recognition software, and thermal-camera drones with automatic tracking and capacity to transmit images in real time.

Amnesty expressed concern for the surveillance of protesters, journalists, activists, human rights defenders, migrants, young people, and marginalized groups. The group warned that this can create a "chilling effect," in which people who believe they are being monitored may avoid speaking, protesting or organizing, even without being directly arrested or punished. This raises concerns about the impact of surveillance on the rights to freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly, and freedom of association.

In October 2025, Argentina bought a Clearview AI facial recognition license for $33,500. Clearview's database contains more than 70 billion facial images scraped from the internet. Data protection authorities in France, Italy, Greece and the Netherlands have already fined the company over its data-collection practices. The Ministry, however, maintains that the Federal Police use facial recognition only in connection with active judicial investigations, and no evidence has surfaced that Clearview was used specifically to identify protesters.

Argentina's expansion of AI-driven surveillance has largely occurred through executive and ministerial measures. On July 26, 2024, then-Security Minister Patricia Bullrich signed Resolution 710/2024, creating the Artificial Intelligence Unit for Security Applications (UIAAS) within the Ministry of Security's Directorate of Cybercrime & Cyber Affairs.

The resolution authorizes the unit to monitor open social media platforms and websites, as well as the dark web, and permits real-time facial recognition through CCTV footage, machine-learning analysis of historical crime data to predict future crimes, and large-scale data aggregation to build suspect profiles. It states that these powers must operate within the Constitution and existing law, but does not specify data retention limits, access restrictions, or independent oversight mechanisms. A related May 2024 rule let the Federal Police monitor social media and other public digital sources without judicial authorization.

The city of Buenos Aires has already suspended a predecessor system on privacy grounds after it was challenged in the courts. The 2024 challenge led courts to suspend the Buenos Aires facial recognition system pending an independent audit and privacy impact assessment. However, the oversight commission that the Buenos Aires Legislature was required to establish has still not been put in place, and the city Ombudsman's Office never filed the mandated reports on its progress. 

More recently, on Dec. 31, 2025, the government issued Urgently Necessary Decree (DNU) 941/2025, amending Argentina's National Intelligence Law to allow greater monitoring of public places and fora to reduce "National Strategic Risk." The country's Association for Civil Rights argues the decree is unconstitutional because it bypasses the constitutional requirement that DNUs apply only when Congress cannot convene, or a genuine emergency exists. The organization specifically objected to a provision allowing National Intelligence Community (CITN) personnel detain individuals before notifying the Federal Police, calling it an unlawful transfer of policing power to intelligence agencies.

Amnesty uses the term "techno-authoritarianism" to describe the harnessing of technology to increase government control over civil society. Amnesty is calling on Argentina to ban remote biometric recognition for mass surveillance and adopt more concrete rules governing the purchase, development, sale, import, export and use of surveillance technologies.

From JURIST, Aug. 21. Used with permission.