The idea that we live within a “big brother” is already enough to describe the plan that the minister Patricia Bullrich implement plans by creating a Artificial Intelligence Unit Engaged in Security (UIAAS). A resolution published this Monday announces that It monitors “open social networks, applications and websites, as well as the ‘deep internet’ or ‘dark web’ with the purpose – he says – “investigating crimes, identifying the perpetrators”, but also anticipating “situations of serious security risk” ”, “detecting suspicious activities”. even with cameras and drones in real time, and “create profiles of suspects or identify links between different cases.”
Although no one can be searched without a court order, several experts warn that everything is in place for a mega fishing trip that is against the National Constitution.which endangers the freedom of all people, their privacy, freedom of expression and movement, among many other rights.
The release of this new provision coincides with two recent events. One of them is the creation of the Secretariat of State Information (SIDE) and the approval of an item of 100,000 million pesos for reserve costs, which will represent more than 70 percent of its budget, and which includes the Cybersecurity Agency among in its column fields. The other is, from the month of May, the publication of a special protocol that allowed cyber surveillance of networks and websites that are accessible to the public, also with the justification of a criminal charge.
“What will be created is an Intelligence Unit, not artificial, illegal. It will increase the fishing trip,” he warns Beatriz Busaniche, president of the Vía Libre Foundation. “From the resolution it emerges that images of people suspected of crime can be created from the many interactions we do online. This is in tension with the rule of law and due process of law which states that no one can be investigated outside of ongoing legal investigation. , a court order and all the necessary guarantees,” he explains Page 12 the expert in rights and digital technologies. “The idea may be promising when no one knows how it works. But they are statistical systems that include results from a lot of information,” explained Busaniche someone is in a special place The instability of the system is not compatible with any criminal investigation The risks so great that there is no way to know if the system. “It didn’t put you in a database of potential criminals because of your comments online or because you made a joke, which the AI doesn’t recognize, or because that you posted a picture playing with a paint gun.”
Former Minister of Security, Sabina Frederic, pointing out that resolution 720/2024 expands “that on cyber surveillance” and points to a “recent coincidence.” “There is a panic because in the last few days all WhatsApp users have seen Artificial Intelligence (AI) appear in their application, no one knows how to get it or in what capacity which he has to follow their own data.. “AI’s limits are unknown and it’s dangerous”. She wants to use it in security “without breaking the personal data protection rules to review the available information about criminal activities, convicted persons, analysis of cases closed legal. ” The problem, he said, is that the resolution does not make many things clear. “What tools do they use? What data? How will that data be stored? A request for access to information is necessary,” he says. If they were to use, he points out, a system called Pegasus “it would be very dangerous.” “It is considered to be the most sophisticated spyware in the world. It is a mobile device monitoring program designed to infiltrate phones with iOS and Android operating systems without being detected.“.
Controversial points and keys to illegal social control
Like so many government resolutions and decrees, this one claims to be motivated by “preserving the freedom, life and heritage of the inhabitants, their rights and guarantees” and all in the context of “the legitimacy of the institutions of the democratic system .” As for the Ministry of Security, it refers to its powers in “internal security.” When experts examine it, they see features that are far from freedom and constitutional rights.
The UIAAS, which announced the publication in the Official Journal, will be made up of the federal police and the security forces (Federal Police, Gendarmerie, Prefecture and Airport Security Police). Among the latter, the government also includes the Federal Penal Service (SPF). The coordinator will be the Director of Cybercrime and Cyber Affairs, Santiago González Bellengeri. It is inspired by the experience, according to the text, of “the United States, China, the United Kingdom, Israel, France, Singapore, India, among others.”
The keys Its functions in the future are in the functions established in article 4.
* “Patrol open social networks, applications and Internet sites, as well as the so-called ‘deep Internet’ or ‘Dark-Web’.” He says it is to investigate crimes and identify perpetrators, he does not clarify if he is in ongoing legal investigations. It also aims to detect, he said, “real security risk situations.”
* “Identify and compare images on physical or virtual media.” Experts say that this could be against the right to privacy and protection of personal data, as images of people cannot be used without reason.
* “Analyze security camera images in real time to detect suspicious activity or identify intruders using facial recognition.” A fact that the resolution does not consider: in the City of Buenos Aires the biometric identification system for refugees has been stopped by a court ruling, based on an amparo that questioned its non-public use, the large data leak and even the criteria for construction. suspicious discriminatory profiles based on characteristics, residence, among others. Busaniche says facial recognition is banned in Boston and San Francisco in public places.
* “Use machine learning algorithms to analyze historical crime data to predict and prevent future crimes.” On the social network “The government agency that was created to monitor social media applications and Internet websites” “contradicts several articles of the National Constitution,” he said.
*”Identify unusual patterns in computer networks and detect cyber threats before attacks occur. This includes identifying malware, phishing and other forms of cyber attacks.”
*”Process large amounts of data from various sources to extract useful information and create suspect profiles or identify links between different cases.” Busaniche warns that “profile or profiling people is one of the highest risk areas in AIs because there is no sure way to know who a given profile is based on. It is specifically prohibited in the EU AI regulations to assess a person’s risk of committing a crime, considered an unacceptable risk of AI implementation, or“A direct attack on freedom of expression, breaking the rule of law as people will be profiled for their opinions and choices on social networks. ”
* “Survey large areas using drones, provide aerial surveillance and respond to emergencies.” That being said, it looks like it could an indiscriminate investigation.
* “Perform dangerous tasks, such as detonating explosives” with “robots.”
* “Improve communication and coordination between different police and security forces” to share “critical information” in a “quick and efficient” manner. That is to say: it is possible that private data, which the government puts in a bag of suspects or cases for investigation, circulate easily.
*“Analyze activity on social networks to detect threats, identify the movements of criminal groups or predict riots.” All the experts see at this point a new threat to social protest, already punished by the government of Javier Milei and the policies of the Ministry of Security through its protocols: both against protest like those to allow security agents to use guns.
* “Detect suspicious financial transactions or irregular behavior that may indicate illegal activity.” It is not clear how this point can be applied without breaching, for example, banking secrecy. The focus group for this activity is the Financial Intelligence Unit.
More looks
“Neither the previous resolution on cyber surveillance nor the new one offers clarity about the assumptions in which the activity could be carried out, in what direction, with the automated systems, under the controls, how they would comply with the law personal data protection,” he says. Victoria Darraoidou, Democratic Security Coordinator at the Center for Legal and Social Studies. “We – he said – sent an information request to the Ministry of Security together with another group of organizations and the Ministry of Security has not yet responded. Now they do not explain how they are going to use Artificial Intelligence, with the controls, what preventive actions, what they are about, whether the cases in which they are going to be the use of cases under judicial review or not. It is not clear which coordinates are to be identified to the AI and in that sense which specific criminal hypotheses the AI would have to intervene, which information protection systems and how they are going to do. to avoid?
“Everything that is proposed is against due process, people’s privacy, it does not require legal authorization to interfere with the communication that lawyers may have with the their clients, or journalists and sources,” warning Rodrigo Iglesias, expert in computer law. “Social networks – he continues – are not open sources of information. We are talking about applications so we are against the possibility that they can read the e-mails, we do not know where they are going to be stored or under what conditions, as well. the various messaging programs (Telegram, Signal, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram) as well as the possible intervention of ordinary citizens without knowing the purpose of the investigation or the reason behind it. “
