EU Parliament votes for ban on biometric mass surveillance

People should only be monitored when suspected of a crime

The European Parliament has voted to support a total ban on law enforcement agencies' use of AI and facial recognition systems for mass public surveillance.

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) on Tuesday passed a resolution on the use of AI systems in the police and judiciary, with 377 votes in favour, 248 votes against, and 62 abstentions.

The European Commission presented draft legislation in April that called to ban the use of AI systems for 'indiscriminate surveillance', or for ranking people's social behaviour.

The proposal suggested outlawing systems that are deployed to exploit information about groups of people, and to ban algorithms that judge people's trustworthiness based on their social behaviour.

Many MEPs warned at the time that the Commission's proposals did not go far enough and lacked stronger safeguards for fundamental rights.

To respect privacy and human dignity, MEPs are now calling for a permanent ban on the automated mass surveillance of people in public spaces, arguing that citizens should only be monitored in this way when suspected of a crime.

They also want a ban on 'predictive policing' and the awarding of points to citizens on the basis of AI by means of 'social scoring'. MEPs stressed that such practices violate the principles of basic human dignity.

The resolution doesn't stop there; it also stipulates that private facial recognition databases, such as those created by American start-up Clearview, be outlawed. Some police forces in Europe already Clearview's data.

The MEPs pointed to the risk of algorithmic bias in AI applications, and emphasised that human supervision is needed to prevent AI discrimination, especially in a law enforcement or border control context.

The subjects monitored by AI systems must also have access to legal remedies, the representatives said.

The European Parliament has expressed concerns over the fact that AI systems often misrecognise ethnic minorities, women, LGBT people and senior citizens to a greater or lesser extent, which is worrying for law enforcement and the judiciary.

"Fundamental rights are unconditional. 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," said Rapporteur Petar Vitanov (S&D, BG).

"We are clearly opposed to predictive policing based on the use of AI as well as any processing of biometric data that leads to mass surveillance. This is a huge win for all European citizens."

The European Parliament's resolution on AI mass surveillance comes days after Michelle Bachelet, the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights, called for a moratorium on the use of AI systems that do not comply with human rights laws.

Bachelet said the sale of AI systems, including facial recognition systems that track people in public spaces, should be delayed until adequate safety measures are in place against violations.

While AI systems can help societies "overcome some of the great challenges of our times," they can also have negative effects "if used without sufficient regard to how they affect people's human rights".

Bachelet warned that the data AI systems collect can be compromised, out of date and even discriminatory, which can affect people's rights to education, health, freedom of expression, freedom of movement, and freedom of peaceful assembly.