European Union Watchdog Facial Recognition Ban

Euro watchdog calls for facial recognition to be banned.

Facial recognition should be banned in Europe because of its “deep and non-democratic intrusion” into people’s private lives says the the EU’s privacy watchdog, the European Data Protection Supervisor, (EDPS).

The call come days after the European Commission proposed draft allowing facial recognition to be used to search for missing children or criminals and in cases of terrorist attacks.

The draft rules, which need to be thrashed out with EU countries and the European Parliament, are an attempt by Brussels to lay down rules for artificial intelligence, a technology dominated by China and the United States.

The EDPS said it regretted that the Commission had not heeded its earlier call to ban facial recognition in public spaces.

They said: “A stricter approach is necessary given that remote biometric identification, where AI may contribute to unprecedented developments, presents extremely high risks of deep and non-democratic intrusion into individuals’ private lives.

“The EDPS will focus in particular on setting precise boundaries for those tools and systems which may present risks for the fundamental rights to data protection and privacy.”