European Commission plans create a giant facial recognition database to be shared with EU law enforcement agencies.
The authors of the document note the “great potential” of the initiative. Many EU countries already store millions of pictures of citizens: Hungary 30 million, Italy 17 million, France 6 million, Germany 5.5 million. These pictures range from criminal suspects to asylum seekers.
Human rights activists have expressed concern about the plans of the European Commission.
“This is the most extensive biometric surveillance infrastructure that I think we have ever seen in the world,” said Ella Jakubowska, political adviser to civil rights NGO European Digital Rights.
The EU representative stated that countries could only share images of the faces of suspected or convicted criminals under Prüm II.
“There will be no matching of face images with the general population,” he added.
For the past 15 years, under the Prüm II policy, police in Europe have been sharing information such as fingerprints and DNA in criminal investigations.
Recall that in April 2021, the European Commission submitted a bill regulating the use of AI in the EU.
The new rules bar law enforcement from using facial recognition — except in cases of “serious crimes,” which the Commission says could mean terrorism-related cases.
In the same month, the European data protection agency demanded that the technology be banned without any exceptions due to its “profound and undemocratic invasion” of people’s privacy.
In June, a group of 55 human rights organizations criticized the bill.
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European Commission plans create a giant facial recognition database to be shared with EU law enforcement agencies.
The authors of the document note the “great potential” of the initiative. Many EU countries already store millions of pictures of citizens: Hungary 30 million, Italy 17 million, France 6 million, Germany 5.5 million. These pictures range from criminal suspects to asylum seekers.
Human rights activists have expressed concern about the plans of the European Commission.
“This is the most extensive biometric surveillance infrastructure that I think we have ever seen in the world,” said Ella Jakubowska, political adviser to civil rights NGO European Digital Rights.
The EU representative stated that countries could only share images of the faces of suspected or convicted criminals under Prüm II.
“There will be no matching of face images with the general population,” he added.
For the past 15 years, under the Prüm II policy, police in Europe have been sharing information such as fingerprints and DNA in criminal investigations.
Recall that in April 2021, the European Commission submitted a bill regulating the use of AI in the EU.
The new rules bar law enforcement from using facial recognition — except in cases of “serious crimes,” which the Commission says could mean terrorism-related cases.
In the same month, the European data protection agency demanded that the technology be banned without any exceptions due to its “profound and undemocratic invasion” of people’s privacy.
In June, a group of 55 human rights organizations criticized the bill.
Subscribe to Cryplogger news in Telegram: Cryplogger AI – all the news from the world of AI!
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