In Jamaica, the use of facial recognition technology has been rapidly expanding across national security, border control, and private sectors.
The Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA) utilises facial recognition to verify traveller identities and streamline the passport application process. The government’s Jamaica Eye is also among efforts to increase surveillance of public spaces island-wide.
National Security minister Dr Horace Chang disclosed during the opening of the 2025/26 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives last year April that there is a plan to roll out an additional 2,500 cameras islandwide over a three-year period as part of the Strategic Master Plan to expand the JamaicaEye surveillance network.
Up to 2021, there were 840 cameras that were a part of the Jamaica Eye network, which is the country’s national closed-circuit television (CCTV) surveillance project launched in 2018.
It is understood that CCTV footage collected by the Jamaican government is stored in a centralised system which is operated by the Ministry of National Security and monitored by the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).
CCTV footage collected by these agencies can be shared with foreign countries through formal legal frameworks and strict privacy laws.
Jamaica also collects biometric data under the National Identification System (NIDS). The NIDS requires facial image, fingerprints, eye colour and signature from citizens. In April 2019, the Constitutional Court struck down the initial 2017 NIDS Act. The Court ruled that it violated constitutional rights, particularly regarding informational privacy, and unfairly discriminated against citizens. The government updated legislation establishing the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) in response to the court’s concern.
A research that was coordinated by the African Digital Rights Network relying on the expertise of 75 digital rights researchers from 30 African countries, found that pressure to adopt biometric systems often comes from foreign funders and creates dependencies on foreign technology providers.
“Biometric digital-ID introduces new challenges and risks. These include risks to privacy caused by data leakage or sharing and risks of exclusion due to poor data quality or mismatches. There are also privacy risks involved because biometrics are permanent,” the group stated.
In many countries there is a lack of adequate legal frameworks and robust digital security to prevent unauthorised access to sensitive data. Countries also lack accountability mechanisms for when data entry errors, breaches or system failures occur.