Biometric Surveillance in Public Deemed Too Harmful to EU Citizens, EU to Ban Technology

Biometric surveillance in public may be banned in the near future as calls from EU institutions to outlaw it has come to light.

In a joint statement published on June 21, the European Data Protection Board or EDPB, and the European Data Protection Supervisor or EDPS, have called out the European Union or EU regulations on the use of artificial intelligence technologies highlighted on the proposal.

The first draft of the proposal was forwarded to the Commission back in April.

The EU bodies urged that the legislation should be updated to include a general ban on any use of AI for automated recognition of human features in publicly accessible spaces, like recognition of gait, faces, DNA, voice, fingerprints, keystrokes, and other biometric or behavioral signals.

Biometric Surveillance in Public Urged to be Banned

The technology is too harmful to the fundamental rights and freedoms of EU citizens, such as privacy and equal treatment under the law.

The EDPB is responsible for ensuring the safe and fair application of the EU's privacy rules, while the EDPS oversees EU institutions' own compliance with data protection law and also gives legislative guidance to the Commission, according to TechCrunch.

EU lawmakers' draft proposal on regulating AI applications contained restrictions on law enforcement's use of biometric surveillance in public places, but with wide-ranging exemptions that attracted criticism from digital rights and civil society groups.

Both the EDPB and the EDPS have released a joint statement outlining their concerns with the AI proposal of the EU, all while acknowledging the existing data protection framework.

The EDPB and the EDPS wrote that they welcome the aim of addressing the use of AI systems within the European Union, including the use of AI systems by EU institutions, agencies, or bodies, according to The Verge.

However, they are still concerned by excluding international law enforcement cooperation from the scope of the EU's proposal.

The EDPB and the EDPS also noted the importance of clarifying the existing EU data protection legislation as well as every process that requires getting any personal data.

Rampant Discrimination of Biometrics

Both of the bodies want to ban the use of biometric surveillance in public. In addition, they urged for a total ban on AI systems using biometrics to categorize people into clusters that are based on gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or other categories on which discrimination is prohibited and violates Article 21 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights.

The EDPB and the EDPS expressed their view and noted that the use of AI is very undesirable and should be prohibited except when it is used for health purposes, according to Reuters.

The bodies stated that the use of AI for social scoring should not be allowed and that the EU must avoid any social credit system that is used in China to spy on its citizens.

The AI Regulation is just one of the numerous digital proposals presented by EU lawmakers in the past few months.

The negotiations between the different EU bodies, and lobbying from both the industry and civil society, continue as the works toward adopting and practicing new digital rules are being rolled out.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Sophie Webster