The Riksdag just voted to let police scan your face in real time — and the argument for it is harder to dismiss than it should be. I noticed the security cameras before I noticed anything else. Walking through Hötorget on a Tuesday morning last autumn, I found myself counting them — the clean white domes mounted above the entrances, the discreet units bolted to lamp posts, the ones swiveling almost imperceptibly on the roof of the Kulturhuset . I'd walked that square hundreds of times. But something about the mood that week, after another shooting in Skärholmen had made the front pages, made me look up. Sweden's cameras had been there all along. The question now is what they're allowed to see. The decision Last week, Sweden's Riksdag voted to authorize the police to use AI-powered real-time facial recognition in public spaces. The new regulation is expected to come into force on July 1st, 2026, alongside amendments to the Public Access and Secrecy Act . The law ...