German MEP warns “biometric mass surveillance in public spaces” will be the result of EU’s proposed AI regulations

(by Tom Parker | Reclaim The Net) – German Member of the European Parliament, Patrick Breyer, has warned that a leaked artificial intelligence (AI) regulation proposal from the European Union (EU) Council Presidency would “open the door for biometric mass surveillance in public spaces on a broad scale.”

The leaked regulation proposal details how the EU Council Presidency plans to introduce “harmonised rules on artificial intelligence” as it implements the Artificial Intelligence Act.

It proposes allowing law enforcement to use AI systems for “real-time…remote biometric identification” of people in public spaces when involved in “the search for potential victims of crime, including missing children,” “certain threats to the life or physical safety of natural persons or of a terrorist attack,” and “the detection, localisation, identification or prosecution of” perpetrators or suspects of certain crimes that are punishable in the Member State with a custodial sentence or detention order for a maximum period of at least three years.

The leaked regulation proposal’s definition of “biometric data” extends far beyond facial recognition data and includes any “personal data resulting from specific technical processing relating to the physical, physiological or behavioural characteristics of a natural person, which allow or confirm the unique identification of that natural person.” The document also specifies that “facial images” and “dactyloscopic data” (fingerprint and palm print data) qualify as biometric data. Read Full Article >