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In this episode, Dr Simon McKenzie speaks with Rohan Talbot about the legal regulation of facial recognition technology during occupations. In 2019, it was revealed that Israel had added facial recognition technologies to the ways that it administers and controls the occupied Palestinian territories. They discuss the international legal implications of these technologies in occupied territories for security and what might it mean to automate an occupation.

Rohan Talbot is a researcher and advocate based in London. He currently works for a humanitarian and development charity that operates across the occupied Palestinian territory and Palestinian refugee communities in Lebanon. He recently completed a Masters degree in International Human Rights Law at Oxford University, where his research focused on the human rights implications of the use of advanced surveillance technologies in occupied territory.

Further reading:

• Rohan Talbot, 'Automating occupation: International humanitarian and human rights law implications of the deployment of facial recognition technologies in the occupied Palestinian territory' (2021) 102 International Review of the Red Cross 823.
• Kelly A. Gates, Our Biometric Future: Facial Recognition Technology and the Culture of Surveillance (2011: NYU Press).
• Elizabeth Dwoskin, 'Israel escalates surveillance of Palestinians with facial recognition program in West Bank' Washington Post (8 November 2021). 
• Olivia Solon, 'Why did Microsoft fund an Israeli firm that surveils West Bank Palestinians?', NBC News (28 October 2019) 
• 7amleh, 'Position Paper: Facial Recognition Technology & Palestinian Digital Rights' (21 May 2020).
• Sophia Goodfriend, 'The Expansion of Digital Surveillance in Jerusalem and Impact on Palestinians Rights' (7amleh, 2021) 
• Amnesty’s ‘Ban the Scan’ campaign