The EU Parliament passed a resolution in favour of a complete ban on mass surveillance of citizens and predictive policing on October 7, a press release on their website announced. The Parliament demanded such safeguards to combat discrimination and ensure citizens' right to privacy, the announcement mentioned. For the first time ever, we are calling for a moratorium on the deployment of facial recognition systems for law enforcement purposes, as the technology has proven to be ineffective and often leads to discriminatory results. – Peter Vitanov, Member of Parliament, European Union In the past few months, a few regulators have been waking up to the dangers of AI-based mass surveillance. Last month, the UN Human Rights Commission asked for a moratorium on biometric recognition in public spaces. Such resolutions could nudge more jurisdictions to take a proactive approach in regulating biometric surveillance. What did the European Parliament pass in its resolution? The European Union is currently working on the Artificial Intelligence Act, and this resolution is a strong indicator of how the act will regulate AI. Here are key measures highlighted by the EU Parliament: Ban on Automated Public Surveillance: The EU Parliament has asked for a permanent ban on automated recognition of individuals and predictive policing according to behaviour. If citizens are suspected of a crime, however, they can be monitored according to the resolution. Moratorium on face recognition: The resolution also calls for law enforcement agencies to halt the deployment of facial recognition software until technical standards comply…
