EU Watchdogs Demand Total Ban on Public Biometric Surveillance
Two key European data protection bodies urge lawmakers to completely ban AI-driven biometric surveillance in public spaces, arguing the technology poses a severe threat to fundamental privacy rights.
Two top European data protection bodies jointly call for a complete ban on AI-driven biometric surveillance in publicly accessible spaces. The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) and the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) urge the EU to reject the current draft AI regulations, arguing that technologies like facial recognition, gait analysis, and voice identification violate fundamental human rights and freedoms.
The EU's original legislative proposal includes restrictions on law enforcement's use of biometric tracking but contains broad exemptions that draw heavy criticism from civil society groups and lawmakers. In response, the EDPB and EDPS push for a much stricter general ban that eliminates these loopholes and explicitly protects citizens from unwarranted behavioral and biometric monitoring in any public context.
While the watchdogs welcome the overall risk-based approach of the draft AI regulation, they highlight several critical concerns about its current scope. They specifically warn that excluding international law enforcement cooperation from the rules creates dangerous blind spots and emphasize that existing data protection laws like the GDPR must fully apply to any personal data processed under the new AI framework.