Today, the two most important regulators for ensuring people’s rights to privacy and data protection across the EU announced their formal call to ban biometric mass surveillance practices! This is a significant development for our campaign and adds even more weight to the pressure that has been exerted by over 55,000 Reclaim Your Face supporters already.

The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) is the watchdog for keeping EU institutions in check when it comes to the use of people’s personal data. Separately, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) brings together representatives of each national data protection authority (DPA). DPAs are the authorities who keep watch over personal data in their own country, and are empowered to issue significant fines in the event of abuses. They are made up of data protection, technology and human rights experts – so their views on the topic of biometric surveillance are crucial and authoritative!

EDPB & EDPS call for ban on use of AI for automated recognition of human features in publicly accessible spaces, and some other uses of AI that can lead to unfair discrimination

21 June 2021

The Reclaim Your Face coalition is especially excited to see the EDPS and EDPB’s reasoning for wanting to ban biometric mass surveillance – or in their words, to “ban [the] use of AI for automated recognition of human features in publicly accessible spaces, and some other uses of AI that can lead to unfair discrimination.”

In particular, the groups highlight that there are “extremely high risks” posed by the use of these technologies in publicly accessible spaces due to the potential to obliterate people’s fundamental right to stay anonymous and to unduly restrict a very wide range of rights and freedoms. The EDPS and EDPB advocate that a ban should be the starting point when it comes to public biometric uses – in contrast to the European Commission’s recent proposal, which simply does not yet go far enough to protect people and communities.

If you haven’t signed it already, now is a perfect time to show your agreement with Reclaim Your Face, the EDPS and EDPB by officially supporting the formal EU initiative to ban biometric mass surveillance practices. This will help us translate the mounting evidence and legal analysis showing how harmful biometric mass surveillance is, into a real ban!

If you’re feeling like having a bit of fun, you can also use absurd comedy to make the very serious point about how facial recognition and other biometric surveillance in public spaces suppresses our rights and freedoms by joining the #PaperBagSociety challenge now!

Stay tuned for the deeper analysis by EDRi of the full EDPS and EDPB opinion, coming soon.